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1900] MARINE REVIEW. 19 TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS. COST OF A 21-FOOT AMERICAN WATERWAY FROM THE LAKES TO THE ATLANTIO SEABOARD -- FINAL REPORT FROM THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSION -- A 80-FOOT CHANNEL WOULD COST $817,284,348--ENGINEERS REOCOM- MEND A 2]-FOOT CHANNEL BY WAY OF LASALLE-LEWISTON ROUTE AROUND NIAGARA FALLS AND OSWEGO -- MOHAWK ROUTE FROM LAKE ONTARIO TO THE HUDSON RIVER. The final report of the deep waterways commission, dealing with routes for a ship canal within United States territory from the great lakes to the Atlantic seaboard, was given to the public by the war department a few days ago. It is a voluminous document of more than 2,000 type- written pages with its appendices, and contains 141 maps and drawings, designs of structures and profiles. There are twenty-three appendices, many of them technical engineering documents of great scientific value. The commission recommends a 2l-foot channel as the maximum depth of the waterway. Two routes are considered for getting from_Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. One is from Tonawanda via Lockport to Olcott at the mouth of Eighteen Mile creek, a distance of 25 miles, and the other is from Lasalle, below Tonawanda, on the Niagara river, to Lewis- ton on the Niagara river below the falls, a distance of 9 miles. This lat- ter is the recommended route. It presents some sensational engineering difficulties. For 6 miles the whole cut is through solid rock, and the canal ends at Lewiston with an astounding descent by means of eight double locks, of which six have a lift of 40 feet each and two of 39.4 feet each, very nearly 320 feet. Concerning the respective merits of these two routes the report says: : "Referring to the estimate for the Tonawanda-Olcott route, it will be noted that it exceeds the estimated cost of the Lasalle-Lewiston route by $6,060,550 for a 30-foot channel and $2,136,900 for a 21-foot channel. It is found that a steamship of 19 feet draught in the 21-foot channel would consume 1 hour and 9 minutes more time between Buffalo and a point common to the two routes in Lake Ontario in traversing the Tona- wanda-Olcott waterway than by the Lasalle-Lewiston route, and that in. a 30-foot channel a steamship of 27 feet draught would be 1 hour and 43 minutes longer by the Tonawanda route. 'Since the cost of maintenance of the Lewiston waterway would be less than for the route from Tona- wanda to Olcott, the interest and expense account will be much less for the former, and, as the actual time saved by a steamship on the Lewiston route would be from 11 to 16 per cent. of the time of passage, it is evident that both economy in construction and cost of transportation definitely determine the Lewiston waterway as the preferable route. The natural harbor at the mouth of the Niagara river and the comparatively small amount of restricted channel on the Lewiston line make it a better loca- tion on which to construct a waterway than the route from Tonawanda to: Olcott: FROM LAKE ONTARIO TO THE HUDSON. To get from Lake Ontario to the Hudson river two routes were considered; One was from Oswego on Lake Ontario up the Oswego river to Lake Oneida, through that lake, across the divide at Rome and the Mohawk valley, and down the Mohawk river to Schenectady, then across country to Normans Kill, avoiding the great water power interests at Cohoes and Troy, and reaching the Hudson in the southern suburbs of Albany. The Hudson will require improvement as far south from this point as Germantown, about 25 miles from Albany. The mouth ot Normans Kill is just 140.7 miles from the battery at New York. Two modes of construction are reported upon for this route, called respectively the high and low level plans. One proposition is to cross the divide at Rome on a high level, locking up and locking down, establishing a great reservoir by damming the Black river at Carthage and conducting the water for 80 miles or more to feed the canal. The alternative propo- sition is to cut through the divide on the level of Oneida lake, which will itself be the reservoir in that case for keeping the canal supplied with water. A supplementary reservoir may be constructed by damming the Salmon river, 30 miles away. The low level project is regarded as the preferable one, although costing $1,678,100 more at the outset. The competing route from Lake Ontario to New York is down the St. Lawrence river to Lake St. Francis, and then across to Lake Cham- plain, which is entered a few miles above Rouses' point. The lake is followed to Whitehall, at the southern extremity of the Narrows. From there a direct cut is made across to the Hudson at Fort Edward, a little below Glens Falls. The route becomes identical with the other, at the mouth of Normans Kill at Albany. Curiously enough the actual number of miles of standard canal to be constructed by these two routes is almost exactly the same, 102.42 by Oswego and 102.35 by Lake Champlain. There is 96 miles of river to be canalized by the Oswego route, and 134 by Lake Champlain. There are fewer locks by the Champlain route, but two of them must be tremendous affairs, having lifts of 52 and 48 feet respectively. The lockage by the Lake Champlain route is really 292 feet less than by the Oswego low level route, but the total distance is 208 miles longer by Champlain. It is estimated that the type of lake carrier taken for the consideration of these problems, will use 12 hours more time going from Lake Ontario to New York by the Champlain route, although it would have to make eighteen more lockages by the Oswego route. DISTANOES, ENGINEERING PROBLEMS, ETO. The total distance from Buffalo to New York by the Lasalle-Lewis- ton route to Lake Ontario, and by the Oswego route to the Hudson, will be 476.94 miles, and by the Champlain route to the Hudson 685.21 miles. The total distance from Chicago to the Battery of New York via the Lasalle and Oswego routes is 1,367.6 miles, and from Duluth 1,466.5 miles. The Champlain route increases these distances 208 miles. If the Olcott route were used in passing Niagara 12 miles would be added. Concerning the comparative usefulness and value of the several routes, appendix 5 of the report says: "On the Champlain route the changes, except at Ft. Miller, will b beneficial to water power interests; but on the Oswego and Mohawk a rearrangement of several of the power plants will be necessary. At Oswe- go and on the Mohawk below Schenectady all interference with power rights has been avoided by locating the routes outside the river valleys. Probably the most serious difficulty on either route will be to make sat- isfactory arrangements for railroad crossings. This is especially the case in the Mohawk valley, where the river is paralleled by the four tracks of the New York Central and by the two tracks of the West Shore rail- roads. Ample provisions have been made in the estimates for either swing or bascule bridges for all crossings, but in the case of the New York Central crossing the number of trains is so great that a high grade crossing or a long embankment or an embankment and trestle may be necessary. With a slight readjustment of the railroad lines in the vicinity of Rome, only one such high viaduct will be needed. The cut-off at Nor- mans Kill is estimated to save $20,000,000 by not disturbing power rights at Cohoes and Troy. "The estimated cost of these routes from Lake Erie to the Atlantic are as follows: Champlain=routes:< ets ee $183,420,600 Oswego-Mohawk route, high level............... 197,718,200 'Oswego-Mohawk route, low level............... . 199,396,300 "Open navigation can be maintained on the Champlain route 230 days, and upon the Mohawk route 245 days, for average year. The round trip from New York to Chicago, including terminal detentions, will take 16 days and 9 hours by the Champlain route, and 15 days and 8 hours by the Oswego route, or for a full navigation season a steamship capable of making 124 statute miles per hour in the open lake, and 8 miles an hour in the canals, would be able to make fourteen round trips by way of Champlain and sixteen round trips by way of Oswego during the season. A steamship could therefore transport freight from Chicago to New York by the Oswego route for 93 per cent. of the rate necessary to charge by the Champlain route, to make the same annual profit. Assuming that freight can be transported over the improved waterway between New York and Chicago for an average rate of $1 per ton, the saving by the. Mohawk route for an annual traffic of 80,000,000 tons would amount to $1,400,000. If the more expensive low level Mohawk waterway should be constructed the first cost would be about $15,975,700 in excess of what it would cost to construct the Champlain route. If 3 per cent. interest be assumed as the rate paid by the government for the money used in constructing the waterway, the saving in the annual fixed charges due to the difference in cost of the waterways would be $479,270, and for the difference in the cost of operation and maintenance $42,740, making a total of $1,132,010 in favor of the Champlain route, or about 80 per cent. of the amount saved on transportation rates by using the Mohawk waterway. PRESENT CONDITIONS ON THE LAKES FAVOR A 2]1-FOOT CANAL. "From a careful consideration of the type of ship best adapted for carrying the lake commerce and of the depth of channels and waterways of the lakes and from the lakes to the Atlantic, required for such ships, it is evident that the proposed 21-foot waterway will furnish better re- turns for the transportation of domestic and foreign commerce than can be obtained by constructing a waterway 30 feet deep from the lake ports to the seaboard." . The report very insistently clings to the 21-foot channel as the maxi- mum depth for the deep waterway. It is pointed out that the natural depth of lake channels and harbor entrances about the lakes points to this depth. The channels already constructed at the Sault, at Lake St. Clair and in the lower Detroit river conform to this depth. If a 30-foot channel were built nearly 60 miles of excavation in deep water would be necessary to make the connecting channels of the upper lakes conform to the increased depth: The report points out that the interest on the increased expenditure and the fixed charges of maintenance would con- siderably exceed anything gained in diminished cost of transportation resulting from the building of deeper-draught steamers. The limit seems to be therefore 21 feet, the carrier to have a draught of 19 feet. To build a 30-foot channel for a carrier of 27 feet draught would not pay, comparatively speaking. Then there enters into the consideration the loss inflicted on vessel owners by the deeper channels and larger vessels making smaller craft obsolete long before théir time. Many coast harbors of the United States also suggest the same depth of 21 feet, and South American ports also. : The canal proposed will be about 250 feet wide at the bottom, with sides that slope to 300 feet at the surface of the water. The surface width of the canal will be almost exactly that of the present St. Clair Flats canal. In rock excavations the slope of the sides will be much less, making the canal seem narrower. Around curves the surface width will be widened. There will be such construction that a speed of 8 miles an hour will be perfectly feasible in the canal. This is permitted at the St. Clair Flats canal, and vessels frequently exceed it. At no point in the waterway will there be a current greater than 4 feet per second, or under 3 miles pershour. The ordinary current through the canal at the Flats is 1.7 miles per hour. Where rivers are canalized the width of the channel will vary with the amount of water to be taken care of, and will, in the Mohawk, vary from 250 feet to 1,000 feet. 'Channels in the lakes and connecting rivers are expected to be 600 feet wide at the bottom as a minimum. At the Sault the report advises the excavation of the channel from Hay lake to Mud lake to the west of Neebish, instead of trying to improve the present Hay lake channel. In the lower Detroit river the only changes recommended are the straightening somewhat of the present channel by rounding off some corners. : The total cost of the proposed deep waterway, with all its proposed regulating works, including the expenditures for damages to existing in- terest, and other charges of all kinds, is given as follows: For the 21-foot channel from Lake Superior to Lake Erie, $6,691,818; from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario by the Lasalle-Lewiston route, $42,393,208; from Lake Ontario to tide water by the Oswego-Mohawk route, low level plan, $157,003,082; total, $206,358,108. The 30-foot channel by the same route would cost $317,284,348. The Tropical Fruit & Steamship Co., a new enterprise, purposes to enter the fruit business in competition with the United Fruit Co. It is said that it has recently acquired twelve steamships which will be utilized in carrying the businéss from Cuba, Jamaica, Central America and other tropical countries: to. Newport News and New Orleans. The company was formed last month under the laws of Maine, with a capital stock of $500,000. Martin H. K. Paulsen of Baltimore is president.