The Cordova daily times., 1916-06-20
SEATTLE CANAL PRACTICALLY
 COMP PLETED

 Lakes Union and Washington with Puget Sound, and thus give Se- attle a large fresh water harbor, is practically completed. Vessels will be able to pass through the big locks at Salmon bay July l, but the remain der of the waterway to the lakes will not be ready for navigation until months later.
 The locks will carry vessels into Salmon bay, but they will not be able to go farther because the city bridge at Fremont, over which traffic will reach the northern portion of the city, is not completed and the government engineers cannot cut away the dam at the foot of Lake Union, over which the traffic now passes. A neck of land which separates Lake Union and Salmon bay will be cut away as soon as the bridge is completed. When the vessels finally enter Lake Union they will be blocked again for time by the construction of another bridge at Latora, where another neck of land separates Lakes Union and Washing ton
 After the Fremont bridge is com pleted the task of lowering Lake 1 Washington seven feet will be begun | The engineers plan that the two lakes and Salmon bay shall be of the same level twenty five feet above low mean water in Puget Sound, except for the natural drainage flow. The locks will lower ships from the fresh water to the salt and then back again. The period required for the lowering of the lake will depend upon the time of the year it is undertaken. If started during the rainy season more time will be required than in summer.
 When the lake has been lowered a l
 channel must be dredged through Un- ion bay, which Is the shallow end of the lake, through which it discharges into Lake Union. All the cutting and dredging will be completed before the I.atona bridge Is ready, according to Lieutenant Colonel James B. Caya- naugh, government engineer directing the canal work, ...-
 The canal will be opened formally next summer. although it was origin ally hoped the event might be cele- brated this summer. Good progress was made on the bridges after work was begun, but political campaigns and elections were required first to decide where they should be situated and to vote bonds to pay for them. The canal was conceived by Lieu tenant George B. Mcclellan, when he iwas stationed here before the Civil war. He afterward became a noted ! engineer and commander in the Union army. A mountain in the Cascade range, a pass through the Cascades land a roadsbetween Seattle and Ia coma were named after Mcclellan.
 Mcclellan planned the canal be- I T nf valley land between Seattle and Ia coma that was formerly inundated each winter. and because 1t would provide a fresh water harboT, the only one on the Sound. More than twenty five years ago a strong effort was made to put the Puget Sound navy yard on Lake Washington, but navy board thought the prospect of the con struction of the canal was remote and choose Bremerton In the state elcc- tion of 1892, which resulted in the election of John H. McGf;w as gov ernor, the issue was the construction l of the canal, called the Seattle Ditch" by it's opponents. The Demo cratic party opposed the canal and was beaten The base of the statue of Governor McGraw in the Times Square, Seattle, records that he was an advocate of the canal.
 The locks will be too narrow to admit the new battleships, but smaller craft may be lifted into the lake.