The Coolidge examiner., 1938-04-07


founded on the creek that still sus-
tains it. It's real greatness began
on October 26, 1925, when the Sem
eca Chief started down the four
foot-deep Erie canal. The news Of
its departure Numbered by cannon
fire from Buffalo to New York, 500
miles in 80 minutes-shots which,
like those of the Minutemen. were
heard round the world.
On November 4, 1925, the canal
boat flotilla arrived at Sandy Hook,
where Governor Clinton poured
Lake Erie water into the Atlantic
near New York city, which "Clin-
tons Ditch was to lift to the posi-
ton of Americas premier port.
Up From the Gulf to Chicago.
On June %, 1888, at Chicago, salt
water from the Gulf of Mexico was
blended with Lake Michigan water
when a flotilla of Mississippi river
barges, bearing spices, coffee, and
sugar, arrived at Lake Michigan.
Bascule bridges, pointing like how
tiers at the tall-speared phalanx
of skyScrapers, aroused with raucous
protests of chorus of Klaxons, and
pseudo-Indian WarWhoops sounded
over the busy waters beside which
lonely Fort Dearborn first rose on
a swampy shore.
The nine-foot channel does today
what river and glacier did more
than once in the past-links the
Great Lakes with the gulf. st. Louis
has become an export port for north
ern wheat. 1t took 260 years for
Joliet's dream of Lakes-to-Gulf
waterway to come true, although
Lake Michigan water has flowed in
to the Mississippi basin since 1871.
Try to force your way through un-
derbrush or struggle along on foot
beneath such a burden as is easily
carried in a light canoe, and you
will realize why the French pene-
trated this continent by following In
dian guides upon its rivers.
Canals extended the natural wa
terways. Then wagon wheels over
rode the objections raised by the
owners Of pack horses and rail-
ways won their share. The motor
car, bringing broad, smooth high
ways, set the tax-collecting filling
station in the place of tollgates, and
passenger car and truck invaded
the steel-webbed empire Of the Iron
Horse. The Panama canal, opened
in time to do its bit in the World
war, brought our coasts together.
The new Welland canal and the
Illinois waterway are additional
transport factors in a region where
motor manufa cturers, having WED
with steam engines, now face COM
petitive traffic problems involving
railways, lake steamers, truck
Always, new car conveys, and wide
ly distributed assembly plants.
Each form of transportation, fight
ing for its share, now FORCES ahead.
now lags behind. But were traffic
stopped on our inland seas, our
industrial life would sustain a ma
jor shock.
Four Routes to Tidewater.
Four routes to tidewater now ex.
ist: the Illinois waterway, with a
nine-foot channel; the New York
State Barge canal and its branch to
Oswego, both with depth of IL feet;
and the ST. Lawrence canals, in
which there are Ia feet of water.
The deepest artificial link is the
new Welland canal, which not only
has 80 feet of water on the sillS of
its spectacular locks, but also &C.
complishes the steepest lift - 1861
feet in Is miles.
Even before the war occasional
tramp steamers entered the Great
Lakes from tidewater, and today
ocean bottoms are no novelty. In
1888 over hundred steamers from
overseas ports brought in cod-liver
oil, canned fish, and merchandise
from Europe to Detroit, and depart
ed with pitch, wood pulp. and motor
cars.
Shiploads of automobiles have
been sent direct from Detroit to
London and Hamburg. Rumanian
oil, coming direct from the Black
sea. completes with American gaso-
line in Detroit. Ships regularly sail
from the River Rouge to ocean ports
around the world. The economic
balance beam is seldom at rest.
Buffalo, welcoming western grain
and sending back return cargoes of
immigrants and pioneers, helped
feed the East with bread and the
West with brains and Drawn. While
retaining its prominence in the
transfer Of grain, it has since be-
come our milling metropolis.