Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-16
GREAT PORTS\
ARE MADE BY MEN
Some Examples of How Cities
Have Brought World Ship
ping to Their
Doors
BY JOHN MEIGs, C. E.


among the uniformed and even among
those fairly well informed, on ordinary top
les, that the city is located too far away
from the open ocean to become a seaport Of
first rank This misconception is easily
refuted by moments consideration Of the
facts Of the case
The idea of the disadvantage Of remote
ness from the sea is a survival Of a now
bygone age, the old sailing ship days, when
vessels depended upon the winds for mOtive
power and required broad reaches of water
In which to navigate with any safety These
days are long past. however; few IL any,
or the worlds great ports of the present are
located directly on the sea, and many Of
them are as far distant from II as Philadel-
phla. Generally I'm the Old World for eco
nomc reasons, they are selected by inten-
tlon at the extreme head of river navigation
In fact. considering the well-known low cost
OF marine transportation compared with that
by land, the further inland a port is the
more favorable should he considered the
location; provided, of course that its water
approaches are safe and ample Other mat
ters than mere proximity TO the high seas
nave decisive weight in determining the de-
slraDlIity or undesirability of sites for ports
Great Ports Far From the Sea
Hamburg. in many respects the most per
fectly developed port in the world is 10.
Gated nifty miles from the mouth of the
EIhe River. which stream WAS originally
shallow, narrow, tortuous and incompara-
BILE in any single respect to the capacious
Delaware
Among other world ports. London on the
Thames Is sixty miles from tho sea: Lv
erppnI ON the Mersey is fifteen miles from
II; Antwerp on the Schedt sixty-unc miles;
Bremen on the Weser. sixty miles Rotter
dam on the Rotte Nieuwe, eighteen miles;
Glasgow on the clyde. twenty miles and
Manchester. practically formerly an inland
city but now connected with the sea by
an artificial canal, is forty-six miles distant
from open water
Coming to our American ports Boston
is eight miles from the sea, through cock
bound channel; Baltimore is 80 from the
capeS of the Chesapeake. where pilots are
required to be taken on New orleans is
ninety-siX miles from the passes at the
mouth of the Mississippi, and even New
York while popularity supposed to be di-
rectly on the ocean, is approached only
through twenty-five miles of buoyod chan.
mel
The river seaport par excellence. how
ever is Montreal. Canada, which is located
more than nine hundred miles up the ST.
Lawrence River from the open ocean. In
Montreal this distance from the ocean Is
considered, and properly SO, an advantage
rather than a disadvantage and its posi-
than Quebec, permitting il to save this two
hundred miles of expensive railroad haul,
has of late years enabled IT to far out
distance its older rival further down the
stream, and this circumstance. together
with the intelligence of it's port administra-
ton, has placed it high up in the rank of
American ports and in position for future
advance with rapid strides
Rver-seapOrtS extraordinary. however.
are found in South America, particularly
on the Amazon, where OXIDES, a flourish
ing city, 500 miles from the mouth has
a harbor capable of floating a navy Of
Lusitanias and Deutschlands
Manaos the greatest rubber center in the
world, is 1900 miles from the sea, reach
able by vessels drawing thirty feet of
water; and 1000 miles further up this
great river, Tomato, the Atlantic port of
Peru, 22OO miles from the ocean. is capable
Of accommodating fair-sized ships So that
II would appear that Philadelphia's ninety
miles from the open ocean is not an in
superable bar to its port ambitions.
Expenditures on Improvements
Let us consider now for a moment the
expenditures that some of these ports have
made in lifting themselves to their pres
ent positions of eminence,
London has spent S125,OOO. 900 on the
making of its port; Liverpool nearly 5000.
100000 Hamburg, $4,000, 600: Antwerp
$lOOOOO,OOO; Rotterdam, $4,000 900: Mar.
seilles $40 0,O00O0O = Havre, $40 900 900, and
so on the examples of princely expendi-
ture might be indefinitely multiplied. our
South American neighbors have been In no
way laggard about this matter, so vital to
national commercial life Buenos Aires
when city of but a quarter of million
population. spent $50 900. 600 on as fine a
system of docks, perhaps, as any in 'the
world. 1t now has a population of more
than one and three-quarter millions, and
ranks either third or fourth among the
cities Of the Western Hemisphere fighting
II out on about even terms with Phila-
delphia. Montevideo, a neighbor and COM
petitor of Buenos Aires. is rivalng IL i'm its
port expenditures, and Valparaiso, Chilli. a
city of only 100000 population, has testified
its belief in the future Of its port by au-
thorizing an expenditure of $4,000 900.
ON the north our neighbors are hard at
work on their ports Montreal has spent
S25,000,000, and is still spending and she
has given the cue to every other ocean
river and lake port i'm the Dominion
Some Of the above cited ports have lit
orally lifted themselves by their own boot
straps so to speak, out of what, to faint
hearts would have seemed a veritable
Slough of Despond. The city of Glasgow.
for instance forty years ago had as its only
outlet to the sea river which might be
crossed on stepping stones at low tide: and
when the first channel. deepening was
started the initial operation for It was the
breaking up of the river bottom with
plow. Now vessels drawing thirty feet
sail up to its docks, Upward of 500, 900 600
has been spent on the channel and harbor
and IL accommodates a commerce greater
than any city in the United States save
New York. Had the inhabitants waited
for the time when commerce should demand
the development of their river the city
would not now be among the worlds first
dozen ports
Manchester on the upper reaches of the
Mersey, where it Is little more than a hill
side brook, was dependent until compara-
lively recently upon Liverpool, thirty-fve
miles downstream, for its port facilities
Its citizens resolved to make IL a seaport
and inasmuch as the city could not be
moved to the sea, they brought the sea to
the city. Their great ship canal, thirty-fiye
miles long, was the result, which at cost
OF Ss0,000,000 has in thirty years trans
formed Manchester from an inland manu-
featuring town to the fourth ranking port
in Great Britain, with commerce far in
excess of Philadelphia.