Atlanta Georgian., 1914-03-01
Short Canals, Easily Dug, He Points Out,
Would Make This City the Only One in the
World With Direct Waterways to the Two
Great Oceans---Calls Topography Ideal.
By TARLEToN COLLIER.

TT ELEMoN cUYLER, of wayside, Ca.
i rather spectacular parsonage himself,
has fanciful and romantic picture at
his fingers ends of the conception, the crea-
ton, the development and the destiny of At
lanta. Mr.. Cuyler was in town the other day,
telling his story and drawing his picture in
lucid maps and diagrams.
And through all the story was his prophecy,
ever recurring like a refrain, that Atlanta one
day will be world port, just as Mannheim,
Germany, leagues distant from the sea, is a
great port; as Manchester England, practi-
cally an inland city, is world port Paris,
far up the Seine is one of the greatest ports,
all because of canals.
1t is a simple enough consummation, too, he
says, involving the comparatively insignificant
engineering problems of two short canals, one
to connect Atlanta with the Ocmulgee River
and the Atlantic Ocean, the other leading from
Atlanta to the Chattahoochee and the Gulf of
Mexico.
Atlanta is unique among the cities of the
world he said, lin having access to two
seas; practically location each of them
There is no other city like it."
The resilient, compact Georgia clay lends it.
self well to the canal venture, he announces;
the terrain, with its adaptable creeks and creek
beds, is laid out as If by fate's hand to tempt
Atlanta to the feat of high emprise. Mr..
Cuyler who knows something of the problem
involved, speaks of digging the canals as if it
were child's play
All along fate has seemed to have hand in
Atlanta's establishment and growth, he says;
perhaps commercial fate, but still something
beyond the mere whims of the squatters and
trail-blazing settlers, which figure so saliently
in the early history of most other cities
IF settlers had made Atlanta, they would
have pitched it on the Chattahoochee River,
eight or ten miles to the north, where Bolton
is today" said Mr. Cuyler. There seems no
reason why Atlanta should be just here miles
away from the river and with nothing in par
ticular to commend its location above Bottoms,
now, is there? And yet
And then he told the reason Of 1t all. There
was Indian lore, white mans enterprise, mu-
nicipal rivalry, pioneers, and great statesman
in his chronicle, and through it all was the
thread of romance.
1t began in 1885 when, only eight years
after the first steam railway was operated In
England, long before continental Europe had
adopted the doubtful invention, the first rail
road track in the United states was laid out OF
Savannah, running toward Macon. 1t was that
of the Central of Georgia Railroad
ut is an odd and significant fact" remarked
Mr. Cuyler. "that its charter gave to this old
company the right to operate a canal or
steam railway 1t is an odd fact, and indica-
tive of Georgia enterprise, that the first rail-
road should be laid in Georgia. Notable, too
by the way, is it that the first ocean-going
steam vessel out of the United States sailed
from Savannah in 1919. 1t was the steamer
Savannah. bound for Russia. However,
w. w. Gordon was the first president OF the