WATERWAYS: Miles and Miles

In his annual message to Congress, the President turned to the question of waterways and laid out in broad outline some of the major projects now in view:

“Provision should be made for flood control of such rivers as the Mississippi and the Colorado and for the opening up of our inland waterways to commerce. Consideration is due to the project of better navigation from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. Every effort is being made to promote an agreement with Canada to build the St. Lawrence waterway.

There are pending before the Congress bills for further development of the Mississippi Basin, for the taking over the Cape Cod Canal in accordance with a moral obligation which seems to have been incurred during the War, and for the improvement of harbors on both the Pacific and the Atlantic Coasts.”

He went on to say that such works are productive of wealth and in the long run reduce the tax burden. The Federal Government is improving some 375 channels, not to mention others that are private or state-owned. Some of the major projects:

The Mississippi Basin. A 9-ft. channel is open up the Mississippi River to Cairo, Ill., continuing with 8-ft. depth to St. Louis. There are plans for continuing a 6-ft. channel as far up as St. Paul. A host of tributaries to the Missouri River are either being made navigable or are being considered. The Missouri, running over a thousand miles north-west from St. Louis into the heart of Montana, is now used for regular navigation only in a few stretches— and those, strangely enough, in its upper portion. Illinois is building a connecting link from Chicago to the Mississippi to complete a Great Lakes to Gulf waterway. The Ohio River is likewise being improved by a great series of dams from Pittsburgh down.

The Great Lakes—St. Lawrence Waterway. This project, long dear to Middle Westerners, can only be undertaken in concert with Canada; for a large part of the project is to makes the St. Lawrence navigable to ocean vessels as far as Lake Ontario. The Welland Canal is at present being improved by Canada. The lakes themselves are easily navigable to seagoing ships; it is the bottlenecks between them and the harbors which must be made so that the whole of this section of the Middle West can reduce its freight rates to Europe.

Boston to Key West. There is a project for a continuous semi-inland waterway from Boston to Key West, off the coast of Florida. Parts of it are in existence, other links are missing. Its route would be through the Cape Cod Canal, Long Island Sound, the Delaware and Raritan Canal, the Delaware River, through a canal now being built to Chesapeake Bay and a canal from Norfolk, Va., to Beaufort, N. C. There is a gap thence to Georgetown, S. C., from where coastwise channels extend to Miami, Fla.

Gulf Waterway. A sheltered channel now leads from Mobile, Ala., to Lake Ponchartrain and thence to the Mississippi at New Orleans. From New Orleans all the way to Corpus Christi, Tex., it is proposed to build a channel, parts of which are already functioning.

Hudson. Plans are being made for a 27-ft. channel for ocean vessels up to Albany to connect with the New York State Barge Canal, successor of the Erie Canal.

Pacific Coast. Deep water channels to both Sacramento and Stockton are considered. The Columbia River, now navigable to Portland and somewhat farther, is also waiting its turn from improvement.

There is an infinity of lesser undertakings and projects, more especially in the Mississippi Basin and on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, where the topography is most favorable. Sooner or later many of them will have their time.