The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1930-01-16

Brehon Somervell, have completed an
intensive study of the Potomac River
from Cumberland and Washington to
see If it can be made navigable the
year round and have found that the
project is altogether feasible. They
are now at work surveying and study
ing four routes from Cumberland to
Pittsburgh, so as to link up the Poto-
mac with the Ohio over the Mononga-
hela. When this survey is completed
q report on the whole project will be
made to Congress, by whose authority
the study is being made.
A year ago Congress passed a bill,
known as House Bill 308, which di-
reefs the Engineer Corps of the Army
to make study and survey of all the
navigable rivers in the United States
for water power development, flood
control, navigation and irrigation pos
sibilities. The survey just completed
is perhaps the most important in the
group of assignments falling under
the scope of the bill. When and if it
is carried out it will give a 12-foot
channel from Washington to Cumber-
land that will permit 1,000-ton barges
to navigate from Philadelphia, Balti-
more and Norfolk to the rich mineral
fields of Ohio, West Virginia 1and
Maryland, on the Potomac project,
and a 9-foot channel from Cumber-
land through the same region and
also through the Pennsylvania indus
trial and mineral region which has
Pittsburgh for it's capital. The chan
mel from Cumberland to Pittsburgh
will probably not be deeper than that
on the Ohio river, which has just
been canalized to depth of 9 feet.
It is planned, in the canalization of
the Potomac, to construct II dams be-
tween Washington and Cumberland.
Four of them will be power dams, ca
pable of supplying over 1000, 1000
kilowatt hours of prime power in one
year. Three of these power dams will
be located at the falls just above
Washington, one at Little Falls and
two at Great Falls. The fourth dam
would be high up in the mountain Sec
ton near Harper's Ferry. This de-
velopment would necessitate Destroy
ing the present Chain Bridge, but it
would be replaced by SPLENDID con-
, crete structure built little below the
present bridge and over the power
dam.
The power dam at Little Falls will
create lake behind it over which
navigation can flow to Great Falls,
and there canal few hundred feet
long, 200 feet wide and IL feet deep,
will be built~around the falls. This is
the only artificial canal in the en-
tire project outside of the bed of the
stream.
On the Potomac proper there will
be sixteen movable dams with locks
long enough to barge through the
longest tow that now moves over the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This
unit, will probably have to be main
tanned, as the Ohio River project is
complete and in operation and is the
largest project of it's kind ever under
taken by the Army Engineering
Corps.
The power dams on this Potomac
project will cost $6O,OOO,O0O. They
will furnish enough power to pay for
the project; that is, the revenue de-
rived from the sale of power will pay
the interest on the bonds, keep up the
sinking fund to retire the bonds and
care for the annual operation of the
great canal. What the other dams
and the locks will cost has not yet
been figured out and is not to be con-
tanned in the preliminary report to
the chief of engineers, Maj. General
Lyle Brown.
AS an engineering project, the
canal to Cumberland, it is said, offers
no new or very interesting problems
to the engineers, but the project link
ing up the Potomac with the Ohio
River will probably prove to be one of
the most intricate these able men
have ever undertaken to work out. A
great obstacle to be removed is car
rying the canal over the Allegheny
Mountains, which is the physical
problem confronting the engineers.
In order to do this, they are going to
carry it under the mountains, and this
will be the only tunnel, in this country
at least, through which navigable
stream carrying 1,000-ton barges will
run.
In studying the four possible routes
rom Cumberland to Pittsburgh the
engineers must find one route on
which can be developed sufficient wa
ter power to pay for the project. At
least this is the objective now aimed
at. Also must be taken into consider
alton the question of sufficient ton
mage moving both ways to make the
canal a practical proposition. This