Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-16

wes $50, Of a total OF tO,70sn tons, o.
g similar per day average
IMPROVEMENTS RAPIDLY MADE.
rhe work OF improving the facilities Of
the port is progressing rapidly, and no
other port OF this country has shown
greater advancement in this work than
! Philadelphia in the last two years.
The most rapid coal loading device In
/ the country was constructed on the Green
wich coal piers. Twenty-Five cars can be
emptied into the holds Of vessels by this
machine In an hour In normal weather
In freezing weather this total Is slightly
decreased by the time necessary to thaw
the coal by running II through the thaw-
ing house Adjacent to the bumper the
railroad yard has n storage capacity for
l5o0 cars. The Port Richmond coal piers
are also equipped with fast loading de-
vices.
At Girard Point the Pennsyivania Rail-
road has constructed a reinforced con
crete and steel grain elevator at the cost
or SLDVOOO. II has a capacity for 100000
bushels of grain, which can be trans
terred to vessels faster than at any other
port i'm America. Four hundred tons OF
ore can be taken In an hour from the two
new ore unloaders erected at the same
point by the same concern.
Records unsurpassed have been made
by the ore-unloading device owned by the
Reading Railway at Port Richmond. This
port is the greatest ore importing port OF
the United States. About one-sixth or
the raw product required by sugar re-
liners passes through Philadelphia
Unlimited possibilities for the business
OF the port will accrue from the opening
OF the Panama Canal. according to the
prediction of prominent shipping men.
-Four big steamship companies have al
ready established direct services to and
from the Pacific coast More are contem-
plating similar service.
GREAT PORTS FAR FROM SEA.
1t is true, as Jealous rivals of the port
declare that the city is located ss miles
from the sea. But this in no way re-
tarded the growth of Hamburg, the great
est port of the world which is located
90 miles from the mouth OF the Elbe. Lon
don, on the Thames, is 80 miles from the
sea; Liverpool, on the Mersey, l5 miles
from the sea; Antwerp, on the scheldt, is
So miles from the sea. New York is an.
preached through only % miles of buoyed
channel
The total water frontage OF the city is
81 miles, 20 miles on the Delaware and
II miles on the Schuylkll. There are 267
wharves and 81 individual sections of i'm
proved bukhead at the port, furnishing
space for 100 vessels at one time.
More than half hundred big piers
capable of accommodating large trans
atlantic liners. are available. The city
OWNS five of these all-modern piers and
has two more nearing completion with
plans drawn for the erection of three
others IN the near future.
While the location of the city so far
from the sea may be looked upon as a
it has its advantges. in
as much as 1t places the municipality in |
the heart of the manufacturing centre of |
Pennsylvania and close to the largest /
coal-mining fields of the world
Another advantage of the port of Phila /
delphia which no other American port has
is the navy's fresh-watar station at the
Philadelphia Navy Yard. Here.5O of the |
Governments largest warshipsf can he
held i'm reserve, without any danger ot /
salt water corroding the huls. It is
recognized as the navy's foremost repair
yard, and preparations are under way IN
enable 1t to construct big battleships ON
the ways now being erected for the con
struction OF a naval collier.
The $50 acres of grounds made II nos
sble for the Navy Department to estab-
lish here a training school for marines
unequaled at any other place in the
United States.