Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-08-02
THE WATER CURE
FOR CONGESTION
Good for Ills Which Affect
Freight MISUNDERSTANDING
ment of Inland Waterways
By w. M. SCHOFF

BY w. NJ. SCHOFF
Secretary Of he AtlblrdiT, Atlantic Deeper waterways
THE passage Of the river and haroor bill
by the United States Senate. carrying
items Of si9lO,OOo for the Delaware River,
S3OO,ose for the Schuylkill and $4,000 for
sundry smaller streams tributary to the
Delaware River and Bay and authority for
acquisition of the Chesapeake and Delaware
Canal, gives decided encouragement to navi-
cation interests in and near Philadelphia
and awakens. now interest In the annual
convention Of the Atlantic Deeper Water
ways Association which Is to be held In
Miami. Fla, during Thanksgiving week,
when the further development of harbor and
waterway facilities In the East for both
commerce and national defense will be con-
sidered by representatives of all the sea-
board States.
Philadelphia is in central position with
respect TO the whole chain of coastwise in
land waterways which the association has
been urging upon the Government. The
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal gives ac-
cess to Chesapeake Bay and the long series
Of bays sounds and thoroughfares that ex-
tend southward to Bscayne Bay in Florida.
The New Jersey Ship Canal, as surveyed by
the army engineers to connect the Delaware
River at Bordentown with Raritan Bay,
near South Amboy, will give access to New
York harbor. Long Island Sound and its
numerous harbors and rivers, the Cape Cod
Canal and Boston harbor, while in another
direction, by way of the Hudson River IT
win connect with the whole New York
barge canal system now approaching COM
pletion, and thence with Lake Champlain
at whitehall Lake ontario at Oswego and
Lake Erie at Buffalo.
Value of Organization
1-t. tla
tematc improvement is apparent in the
record Of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways
Association. Ten years ago the demands
made upon the Government for river and
harbor Improvement came largely from tho
Middle West. where better organization
was succeeding in emphasizing projects
which although admittedly practicable.
gave nothing like the promise of CONNER.
cial use that could be predicted for eastern
waterways where rapid development of
heavy Industries. combined with smaller
proDortionatc railroad mileage, were bring
ing about a chronic congestion in freight
of all kinds. Yet nowhere in the country
was there an equal opportunity for de-
vcloping a great trunk line Of water trans
purtation by barge, the cheapest of all
forms of transportation, with navigahle
streams as feeders. giving access to the far
interior of every eastern State. Along the
Atlantic seaboard there are no fewer than
1865 miles. Every one of these streams,
now a separate freight proposition, is sus-
ccpttble of connection with a trunk line
waterway extending from New England to
Florida in such manner that barge loaded
on the Great Lakes could deliver it's cargo
at Boston or Providence, PHILADELPHIA or
Baltimore. Charleston. Savannah or Jack
sonville, or at the head of navigation of the
different rivers usually marked by busy
lhdustr!al cities, such as Springfield Mass
and Hartford Conn. Trenton, ~ J. ; Wash
"Eton, d. c.; Richmond, Va: Wilmington
and Fayetteville. ~ c.; Columbia. S. c.;
Augusta, Ga. Milledgevile, Ga: Palatka,
Fla.
To create such n chain of coastaI vator-
ways only n small amount of cutting Is
necessary. The coast is already lined with
bays, sounds and tidal thoroughfares. north
any south, in part already connected by
obsolete canals and all susceptible of con-
nection at minimum cost through alluyiaI
formation by waterways of modern dimen-
sion. The plan was ambitious but for that
very reason it met with the instant sun
port of commercial organizations all along
the eastern coast, and it was definitely
formulated and recommended at the first
meeting Of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways
Association held in Philadelphia in 1907.
Congress thought well enough of the idea
to authorize official surveys by the army
engineers, and when these were completed
anu Hdu run tne Bafnut or the various army
boards and the chief of engineers they were
found to give definite Endorsement to a con-
nected waterway chain not less than twelve
feet deep from Narragansett Bay to Beau
fort Inlet, n c., below Cape Hatteras and
for a further series Of connected waterways
not less than seven feet deep between Beau
fort Inlet, y. c., and the st. Johns River
Florida. Meantime, private capital was en-
gagged upon the construction of the Cape
Cod Canal, connecting Boston harbor with
the coastal chain. and the State of New
York was at work on the gigantic task Of
reconstructing its whole canal system to
provide the same standard depth of twelve
feet recommended for the coastal water
way, so as to enable shippers to load barges
TO a minimum Of 1000 tons.
Bringing Canal to Sea-Level
Link by link Congress has proceeded
with the deeper coastal waterway. The
old Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal was
acquired a few years ago and the Govern
ment is bringing ii to sea-level and
giving it a minimum depth of twelve feet
TO connect Chesapeake Fay and Hampton
Roads with the North Carolina sounds
Bars have been dredged and connecting
channels built in the southern thorough
fares so that a continuous seven-foot chan
mel now exists virtually all the way from
Winyah Bay, S. c.. to the st. Johns River
Florida The New York Barge Canal is
finished on modern dimensions to Lake
Champlain and Lake Ontario and will be
finished through to Lake Erie early in 1918
To connect the barge canal at standard
dimensions with deep water in Lake Cham
plain, thus reaching the valuable iron ore
deposits there, the pending river and har-
Dor bill provides for strengthening and
deepening the Champlain Narrows. an arm
of the lake at its southern extremity, where
it connects with the barge canal. Private
capital has finished the Cape Cod Canal
It's strategic value to the navy has been
so thoroughly demonstrated that the pend
ing bill provides for it's acquisition by the
Government with view to its further
Improvement to battleship dimensions. East
River New York, Is also to be dredged
to battleshtp dimensions through He'll Gate
and the Harlem River, 10 a minimum twelve
foot depth to enable craft from the barge
canal coming down the Hudson to pass
through to Long Island Sound without add
ing to the present congestion In New York
harbor
Staten Island Sound has been widened
and deepened to pass modern barges be-
tween New York and South Amboy, and
this brings us again to the two items of