Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-22

Copyright, 1913, by Frank G. Carpenter)
y RoTEcTIoN from submarines
r. for our Atlantic coast COM
merce!
An inland waterway from
the harbor of Boston to the mouth of
the Rio Grande on the Mexican
boundary!
A system of ship canals that will
enable us to defend our industrial
centers east of the Alleghanies and
preserve the National Capital free
from invasion.
This in a nutshell indicates one of
the chief features of after-the-war
legislation. The subject is now be-
fore Congress. The Department of
Commerce is investigating the mat
ter. The government has already ac-
quired some of the links in the chain
and it is preparing to buy and devel-
op the others. The scheme is to be
known as the Atlantic intracoastal
canal. The upper part Of it will be
first developed and already it is far
under way. 1t begins with the Cape
than eight miles in length which cuts
the Cape Cod peninsula and thus
Joins the waters of Cape Cod bay and
Buzzards bay. adjacent to Long Is
land sound. This canal has been
road administration. and it is to be
widened and deepened SO that it will
make a short cut for our naval ves-
sells from New York to Boston. At
the same time it will be the water
coal chute for q large part of manu-
featuring New England.
The next link Is the Delaware and
Raritan canal, which runs from New
York bay to the Delaware river, This
also is in the hands of the govern
ment and 1t Will be improved to re-
from the north to the south. 1t Is
estimated that an appropriation of
100000 will enable 1t to carry q ,traf-
fic of 100000. tons per annum: AT
ship canal has been surveyed by the
Army engineers across New Jersey
almost paralleling the Delaware and
Raritan canal. and this will probably
take its place The c :2s NV VII ano be in
the engineers say this viii give us a
sea-level canal wide enough and deep
enough for many Of our vessels of
war and 1t will form an inland water
route between Philadelphia and New
York.
Going southwark from the mouth of
this canal along the Delaware river we
pass Philadelphia and Wilmington. and
then come to the Chesapeake and Della
ware canal which joins this river with
Chesapeake bay. The canal is less than
fourteen miles long. but it connects
bodies of inclosed water with shore
line equal to half the distance between
San Francisco and Shanghai in China.
1t unites Baltimore with Philadelphia,
posed ships can go inland to New York
and on by way of Cape Cod canal to
Boston. The government is about to ac-
Quire this fourteen-mile ditch. 1t will
change it to a deep ship canal and i'm
prove it SO that naval vessels coming
out Of the navy yards at Hampton roads
may go inland to the navy yards at
Philadelphia and on to New York and
Boston. Submarines and our smaller
vessels of war can be moved back and
forth in it, and the size of the water
ways may be so increased that they
will be available for our big battleships.
Other connections and extensions Ct
the Atlantic intracoastal canal are the
new Erie canal to the great lakes re-
Gently made by New York through an
and the canals going south from the
lower end Of Chesapeake bay from Nor
folk to Beaufort. NJ. G.. Still farther
south is the proposed ship canal across
Florida, and the one skirting the Gulf
of Mexico The latter will touch New
almost all the way to Brownsville at the
mouth of the Rio Grande and the Mex
lean honoan-v
A great part Of this waterway is
along the lines Of natural depres-
sions which in prehistoric times were
under water This Is true Of the
Cape Cod canal and of the line of
the proposed New Jersey ship canal.
1t is so also o; the route from Chesa-
peake bay to the Delaware river and
Of the Dismal Swamp canal farther
south The woter~nvs have been filled
i'm hv tho ~'-'nc Of the ea-th
through thousands of years. and all
that is proposed Is merely to cut out
and restore the old channels. The
saving in distance will he great.
From New York to Boston by way
Of Cape Cod the distance ia cut from
g. to 152 miles for ships go
ing north Of the cape. ard from
PHILADELPHIA and Wilmington from
81 to 105 miles. The saving from