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With Illustrations and Notes,
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Prepared Under the Direction of
Committee on Main Drainage,
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By L E. COOLEY, Civil Engineer.
i-îicago. January, T888.
CHICAGO:
CHICAGO LEGAL NEWS CO., PRINTERS, 87 CLARK STREET.
1888.
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CONTENTS.
PART I.—Descriptive and Historical.
PAGE.
JSummary Statement 1
Physical Conditions 5
State and National History 7
Chicago Drainage and Waterway History 14
Present Purpose and Past Efforts 20
Recent Popular Action 24
PART II.—A Brief—Pro and Con
A—The Trunk Waterway , 26
B—The Modified Wilson Project 29
C—The Little Water Project Inadequate 30
D—The Little Water Project Unsanitary and Destruc¬
tive of Natural River 32
E—The Smallest Permissible Channel 33
F—Chicago's Position 35
G—Objection to the Big Water Project 35
H—Recommendations 37
PART III.—Appendices.
No. 1—Expenditures 38
2—Estimates 40
3—Comparative Channel Sections (Illustrated) 42
4—The Chicago Divide (Map and Profile) 45
5—The Illinois Waterway (Map) 48
6—The Lakes to the Atlantic (Map) 51
7—The Great Circle Waterway (Map) 58
8—Lake Level Effects 62
9—Reservoirs in Aid of River Improveimmt 67
10—Influence of Depth on Speed 74
11—Economical Channel Capacity for Commerce... 78
LAKES AND GULF WATERWAY.
SUMMAEY STATEMENT.
A free national waterway wide and deep enough for the
largest river steamers, and for naval vessels for defense in
time of war, and which will afford a large and steady sup¬
ply of water to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.
Ronte.
Two channels have been proposed, viz., one from Lake
Michigan by way of the Chicago river, with a branch
uniting at the west fork of the south branch, near city
limits; thence by an artificial channel southwesterly in the
bed of Mud Lake to the Desplaines river at Summit, 8
miles; thence southerly by a channel in the rock bed of the
Desplaines to Joliet Lake, 28 miles; thence by slackwater—
locks and dams and channel improvement in the bed of the
Illinois and Desplaines (64 miles) to La Salle, the present
head of navigation on the Illinois; thence to the Mississippi
and Gulf. The other channel is from Calumet river by the
way of the Calumet Feeder to Sag Junction, whence it takes
the same route as the one above described. The disposition
of Chicago sewage can be best effected through the chan¬
nel first described, and that will no doubt be first con¬
structed. Whichever is first constructed the other must
eventually be constructed for the complete disposition of
sewage. The route hereinafter described is of the first
channel.
Contour of Route.
From Chicago to Romeo, 27 miles, the surface of the
ground is about 6 feet above mean level of Lake Michigan.
From Romeo to Lake Joliet, 10 miles, there is a descent of
77 feet below lake level. From Lake Joliet to La Salle, 60
H E
H
o
miles, is a fall of 70 feet. The total distance from Lake
Michigan to La Salle 100 miles. Total fall from Chicago to
La Salle 146.6. From La Salle to the mouth of the Illinois,
225 miles, there is a fall of 27 feet.
Size of Waterway.
From Chicago to Lake Joliet the channel is proposed to
be 160 feet wide and 22 feet deep below lake surface, (in
rock bed, except the 8 miles next to Chicago,) and is to
carry 600,000 cubic feet of water per minute; current two
miles an hour. From Lake Joliet to La Salle slackwater—
locks and dams and improvement of bed of river by re¬
moval of boulders, etc., giving a navigable channel of from
800 to 600 feet wide and not less than 14 feet deep. From
La Salle to the Mississippi, 10 feet deep on bars at low water
immediately, and ultimately 14 feet.
Effect on Illinois Riyer.
During a large part of the year the Illinois river is'shallow,
sluggish and at limes stagnant and unhealthy, and unfit for
profitable navigation. The large volume of water which
will be steadily poured into it from the lakes (600,000 cubic
feet per minute) will make it at all times a capacious and
vigorous stream, purifying itself, constantly promoting its
own improvement, navigable for the largest Mississippi
steamers, the central artery of the lakes and river com¬
merce and a naval station for lake and river gun boats.
By dilution and otherwise it will overcome all bad effects
now experienced from the sewage of Chicago and other
cities and towns along the Desplaines and Illinois.
Effect upon the Mississippi.
It will add materially to the low water volume of the
Mississippi; it is estimated one foot between St. Louis and
Cairo and six inches below Cairo.
It will add vigor to the stream when most needed—the
low water stage, promote channel improvement, tend to
prevent the formation of bars, and in fact do more for the
river than any other improvement of the same cost.
It will show to what extent the lakes may be used as
3
reservoirs to maintain navigation in the Illinois and Mis¬
sissippi without detriment to the lakes themselves.
Water Power.
It will create an unvarying water power second to none
in this country; 55,000 horse between Lockport and Joliet
Lake and 45,000 horse between the latter point and La
Salle.
The country between Lockport and La Salle, reached as it
will be from the north and the south by navigable water,
and from every way by rail, and situated so near the great
distributing point of the Northwest, will inevitably become
a great manufacturing center.
Hennepin Canal.
The waterway herein described will, if constructed, con¬
stitute 113 miles of the proposed Hennepin canal, or about
two thirds of its entire length, and thus hasten the time
of its completion.
Expense—Legislative Action.
Chicago is now discharging its sewage into the Chicago
river and pumping the river into the Illinois and Michigan
canal, whence it flows into the Desplaines and Illinois
rivers. The capacity of the canal and pumps (60,000 cubic
feet per minute) is not sufficient for the dilution of the sew¬
age of the present population* (about 800,000). The capac¬
ity of the proposed channel (600,000 cubic feet per minute)
will be ample for a population of 2,500,000.
A channel of this capacity, if designed for sewage purposes
alone, can be constructed at a less cost than if also suited to
navigation. Uniting the two purposes in the same channel
makes a navigable waterway a certainty, in the near future,
while a channel for navigation alone, on account of its
great expense, would most likely be delayed many years.
It is proposed that Chicago shall pay the full cost of taking
care of her sewage, leaving to the United States only the
expense of suiting the channel to the purposes of naviga¬
tion and improving the river below—in other words while
Chicago will, at her own expense, restore the ancient chan-
4
nel connection between the lakes and the rivers, the United
States is simply asked to utilize the great waterway thus
created for the purposes of commerce and national defense.
The work of digging the channel between Joliet and Chi¬
cago (mostly through rock) and the construction of locks
and dams at and below Joliet should proceed simulta¬
neously, because the stone taken out of the cut may be used
for the construction of these locks and dams, thus saving a
large expense. What is asked of Congress at the present
is a survey, location, plans and estimates, with a view to
such co-operation.
All that is asked of the Legislature of Illinois, is suitable
legislation to enable Chicago to do its part of the work, at
its own expense.
Scope of Brief.
The following brief is designed to show the practicability
of restoring the ancient outlet of the great lakes, by open¬
ing a channel across the Chicago divide, and how such
restoration may be made the chief element in the develop¬
ment of a great waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. It also
considers the relations of such a waterway to one of similar
capacity to the Atlantic, how all the great marketing points
may be united, and how ail the waterway systems may be
bound together as a whole. In developing this idea, the util¬
ity of the reservoir system of the upper Mississippi is
strongly set forth, and how all improvements may have a
common purpose.
The history of past efforts is succinctly treated, and the
small utility of the present project of the United States, is
set forth, The relation of the Chicago drainage project to
a plan of large proportions, is shown, and how this interest
may be turned to a great commercial purpose. By a plan
thus serving all interests, the results may be most quickly
obtained, and on the largest scale of mutual advantage.
Daniel L. Sftorey, ") Committee on Main
Harvey B. Hurd, (• Drainage, Citizens'
Edvtin Lee Brown, ) Asso'n^ Chicago,
THE
Lakes and Gulf Waterway.
PART I.
(Descriptive and Historical,)
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS.
Before the last glacial period, the upper lakes, Michigan,
Huron and Superior, discharged their waters across the
Chicago ** divide," twenty or more feet in depth, descend¬
ing in precipitous course some 150 feet in ICQ miles through
a rocky channel, and thence gently onward to the Gulf as a
grand river not less than thirty feet deep. Lake Erie was
then a river basin, draining to the head of Lake Ontario by
the Dundas valley. A great northern lake system dis¬
charged southward by the Minnesota and Mississippi val¬
leys, the two outlets uniting at a common point with the
Missouri. The upper lakes and the Winnipeg basin were
then in the Mississippi valley, (a)
The last ice epoch wrought changes of continental signif¬
icance. The upper lakes shifted their outlet from the Chi¬
cago to the Detroit divide," from the Gulf of Mexico to
the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Glacial debris choked the Dun-
das valley and formed a new lake, breaking over into the
Tonawanda and Chippewa gorge as a Niagara, The Win¬
nipeg basin also abandoned its southern outlet, draining out
to Hudson's Bay, leaving the wheat plains of the Red River
valley and Manitoba, (a)
To restore in some measure the ancient volume and uni-
5
6
formîty, îs to work in harmony with the conditions imposed
by nature in her creative moods; is to arrest and counteract
the tendencies to decay and destruction in the adaptation
to present conditions of local drainage, a metamorphosis
requiring geologic time to complete. (&)
Except some alluvial deposits of limited extent, the bed
of the abandoned outlet (the Chicago divide) is but six feet
above the mean level of Lake Michigan. It reaches lake
level in thirty miles (near Lockport) and then descends sev¬
enty-seven feet in ten miles to Lake Joliet; ten feet in two
miles at the foot of the lake, and thirty feet in eight miles
above the Fox; a total of 146.6 feet to natural low water at
La Salle, 100 miles from Lake Michigan. From La Salle to
the mouth of the Illinois, 225 miles, is a low water fall of
twenty-seven feet; a sluggish current; an oozy bed and bars,
formed chiefly by tributaries, with natural depths of two to
four feet; banks half way to high water and bottoms low,,
one to six miles wide and bounded by terraces, overflowed
in high water from four to twelve feet deep, and intersected
in dry seasons by lake, bayou, lagoon and marsh—the wreck
of a mighty past, (c)
Across no other " divide " could the lakes have discharged
southward. The Mississippi reaches the level of Lake Mich¬
igan at the head of the Rock Island rapids and the Ohio de¬
scends to the level of Lake Erie at Steubenville. From the
head of Lake Michigan to lake level in the Wabash valley is
fifty miles with two summits of 105 feet and 125 feet respect¬
ively. The beach and shore lines of the ancient lakes are
adjusted to the abandoned outlet, the only pass by whicE
their waters could escape southward and the only practicable
route for a great commercial and military channel. Glacial
forces have scored other grooves between the lakes and river
systems, routes along which less useful arteries may be con¬
structed, the St. Croix *' divide at the head waters of the
Mississippi, 420 feet above Lake Superior; the Fox-Wiscon¬
sin " divide," 208 feet above Lake Michigan; the Wabash-
Maumee divicle," 190 feet above Lake Erie; the divide**
between the Ohio and Lake Erie, and still others. By somo
7
of these, flood waters may be diverted to increase the volume
which may be drawn from the lakes, (d)
(a) See following for details: G. K. Warren in Repts. Chf. Engrs.
U. S. A., 1876, II, 270-2, and 1878, II, 909-26. " The Hennepin Canal,"
Chicago Dai'i/ News, April 7, 1885, and Tribune, Dec. 11, 1886. " The
Future of Chicago," p. 18. Daily News Pamphlet, Jan., 1887. Academy
of Science Lecture, News and Inter Ocean, Chicago, Feb. 9,1887. Pro¬
ceedings Peoria Convention, p. 38.
(Ö) Testimony, pp. 25 and 27, Joint Committee of General As¬
sembly of Illinois, April, 1887. Proceedings Peoria Conv., p. 89.
(c) Report of Genl. Wilson, Ex. Doc. No. 16, H. R., 1867. Cht
Engrs., 1868, p. 440; 1880, p. 1995; 1884, p. 1957. Testimony (above), pp.
21-7.
(d) Wabash—Michigan Summit, Chf. Engr., 1876, II, 454; "Im¬
provement of the Kankakee Ri^^er," etc., State Rept. Indiana, 1882.
St. Croix, Rept. St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, 18S6, p. 29,- Chf. Engrs.
1881, p. 1819. Fox-Wisconsin, Chf. Engrs., 1876, IT. 270 et seq. Wabash-
Maumee, Chf. Engrs., 1881, p. 2318 et seq. Many other references have
been consulted.
STATE AND NATIONAL HISTORY.
Contiguous waterways and an easy portage guided the
first explorers (1670-80) who claimed the country for France
and ultimately established a chain of forts to the Gulf. The
names of Joliet, La Salle and Hennepin are crystallized in
the geography of the route, and Joliet, the soldier, pro¬
posed the first canal across the Chicago " divide," for com¬
mercial and military purposes, (a)
A century later, the faiiie of the Chicago portage had
spread throughout the land. Albert Gallatin (1804) men¬
tions its national character in the first comprehensive re¬
port on means of intèrnal communication. (&) Clinton
and Morris (1808-1825) urge the proposed ship canal," as
an extension of the Erie to the Mississippi, thus opening up
water communication by the lakes from the Hudson to the
Gulf, (c) Genl. Dearborn, (1838) speaking of the Illinois
and Michigan Canal as then proposed, writes that "it is
of such enlarged dimensions as to permit the passage of
large vessels, being ten feet deep;" (d) or all that lake
vessels could then carry across the St. Clair flats.
8
In 1822 (March 30th), the United States granted the right
of way for a canal connecting the Illinois river with the
southern bend of Lake Michigan," and the use of materials
on the adjacent public lands. In 1823. the State of Illinois
took appropriate action, and also instructed its commissioners
with a view to a canal which should pass through Indiana
and Ohio to Lake Erie. Plans were submitted in 1825, and
in 1827 (March 2d), Congress made a land grant, amounting
to 284,000 acres, and legislated farther in the premises in
1838, 1842 and 1854. The State authorized the construc¬
tion of the canal in 1829 (January 22d); examinations were
made by government engineers in 1830, farther State sur¬
veys in 1833, and the work definitely inaugurated in 1836.
(Act of General Assembly, January 9th.) {e)
One of the points at issue was the southern terminus and
the construction of locks and dams in the channel of the
river in place of the canal alongside from Joliet to La Salle,
a controversy decided by one vote in the State senate. The
work was actively prosecuted until 1841, ceased in 1843
from financial stringency, was resumed in 1845 on a modi¬
fied and cheaper plan, and opened to navigation in the
spring of 1848. (/)
The work was constructed on the plans of Wm. Gooding,
and extended from Chicago to La Salle, a distance of 97.24
miles, and a descent from low water of Lake Michigan of
146.6 feet to low water in the Illinois river. The canal was
six feet deep, sixty feet wide at surface, and thirty-six feet
wide at bottom in earth; forty-eight feet wide in rock;
with locks 110 feet long, eighteen feet wide and six feet on
miter sills. As built the canal had a summit level, eight feet
above the lake, for twenty-six and one half miles.
In 1865 (February 16th) the State provided for complet¬
ing the work on the original plan of a summit level with a
flow by gravity from Lake Michigan. This was completed
by the city of Chicago for drainage purposes in July, 1871.
The flow proved insufficient, and in the winter of 1881, the
State required the city of Chicago to erect pumping ma¬
chinery of a capacity not less than 60,000 feet per minute.
9
These works began regular operation in the spring of 1884,
The long low water period of the Illinois, often half the
boating season, and the small depth on the bars (two feet to
four feet) largely restricted the canal to local commerce.
In 1852, the general government made a small appropria¬
tion for dredging bht it does not appear that either the
State or Nation made farther effort until the events of the
civil war brought the militii.ry utility of the route promi¬
nently to the front. In 1866, Congress ordered surveys and
a project " for a system of navigation, by way of the Illinois
river between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan, adapted
to military, naval and commercial purposes." General J.
H. Wilson made a preliminary report in 1867 and in con¬
junction with Mr. Gooding, engineer of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal, a final report in 1868.
The examinations and surveys were comprehensive includ¬
ing not only the main route to Chicago but also lines up the
Pox, the Kankakee and to the Calumet. The Fox and Kan¬
kakee routes were not found practicable, and the Calumet
line was not regarded favorably on account of absence of
harbor facilities and greater length, and because it " would
cost a great deal more." On account of " the necessity for
rock excavation * * * * sufficient to preclude the
selection of that route for the enlarged canal." (g)
The project recommended was the enlargement of the
canal from Chicago to Lake Joliet to a width of 160 feet and
a depth, at lowest lake, of six feet or eight feet at mean
lake level, with a grade of one-tenth foot per mile; from
Joliet to Utica, improvement of the river by dams and locks,
and thence to the mouth, six dams and locks, seven feet to
be the minimum depth. The locks were designed to be 350
feet long, seventy-five feet wide, with seven feet on the
miter sills.
The amount of water to be taken by the summit cut from
Lake Michigan is not stated but it may be figured on the
basis of other results presented, at somewhat less than
60,0(X) cubic feet per minute with six feet of water in the
canal, and about 82,000 with eight feet.
10
It was regarded as impracticable to obtain by dredging
and the natural water supply of the river, over four feebfrom
La Salle to the mouth, at extreme low water; and to obtain
sufficient water from Luke Michigan for seven feet, or ** to
pass the largest boat, either of commercial or naval charac¬
ter, that can navigate the Mississippi during the ordinary
boating season," was stated as " impracticable at any rea¬
sonable cost." It must be said, however, that the estimate
used in the discussion was based on a design for the summit
cut which involved at least twice the extra excavation (above
the channel recommended) of a channel which would now
be considered of best proportions for the same volume of
water, [h)
In 1869 (Act of February 26th,) the State of Illinois
directed the construction of one lock and dam at Henry
twenty-eight niiles below La Salle, substantially in conform¬
ity to the project of Genl. Wilson. This was opened in
1872, and a second lock and dam begun at Copperas Creek,
sixty miles below Henry, and opened in 1877. Meantime,
the general government, under Col. J. H. Macomb, con¬
structed the foundation for the Copperas Creek lock, dredged
the jjool above to seven feet and dredged the bars below
with a view to a four feet low water navigation, it being
understood that the State was to construct the permanent
works and the United States to correct the channel.
In 1874, under Col. Macomb, and as part of the northern
transportation route to the seaboard, a survey and project
was made from Chicago to Hennepin by Mr. F. C. Doran.
He sought another route north of the Illinois valley but with¬
out success. He also examined the Calumet route, without
discovering as favorable features as the existing line of
canal presented." His project differed in some details from
that of Genl. Wilson. The summit cut was to be eight feet
deep, on a grade of 0.28 foot per mile and to have a capac¬
ity of 124,000 cubic feet per minute, (t)
, In 1878, Maj. Lydecker reviews the various government
projects and operations to date and advises a change in plan.
Hew surveys were ordered from Copperas Creek to the.
11
mouth and reported upon in 1880. He finds it feasible to
obtain six feet of water in a channel 200 feet wide, with tho
present low water volume, by dredging*, wing dams and
dikes, but estimates the cost somewhat greater than that for
two locks and dams, one to be located at La Grange, seventy
miles above the mouth, and one at Kampsville, thirty miles
above the mouth, and which are deemed sufficient to give
seven feet. He recommended that the works be completed
by the United States. Operations have continued under
this project. The lock at La Grange is nearly completed
and the foundations for the lock at Kampsville are in and
some material for lock on hand. One lock, the two dams
and the channel dredging are yet to be done, {j)
The river and harbor bill for 1882 (August 2d), called for
a survey for " a canal from a point on the Illino's river, at
or near the town of Hennepin, by the most practicable
route to the Mississippi river, at or above the city of Rock
Island;" also '*a survey of the Illinois and Michigan canal,
connecting the Illinois river with Lake Michigan at Chi¬
cago, and estimate the cost of enlarging the same so as to
correspond in dimensions with the proposed canal between
Hennepin and the Mississippi river." Meantime, the State
of Illinois (Act of General Assembly, April 28, 1882, rati¬
fied by popular vote the following November), ceded the
canal to the United States, upon the express condition
that the canal shall be enlarged . . . and be main¬
tained as a national waterway for commercial purposes,"
provided the grant shall be accepted within five years.
This cession not having been accepted within that time haa
lapsed.
Upon the surveys made by H. B. Herr and G. Y. Wisner,
Maj. W. H. H. Benyaurd submitted projects in the spring of
1883 (March 31st); the prisms of the Hennepin canal and
the enlarged Illinois and Michigan canal to be eighty feet
wide at surface, fifty-nine feet wide on bottom and seven
feet deep, with locks 170 feet long, thirty feet wide and
seven feet on miter sills, or navigable for barges of a max¬
imum capacity of 600 tons. "The sectional area (Chicaga
12
will be 485 square feet, or about twenty-five per
oent larger than the present canal." "The water will be
supplied by pumps, now in course of construction at Bridge¬
port, which furnish 1,000 cubic feet per second." (Ar)
The bill reported to the House, February 17, 1886, by the
Committee on Railways and Canals, provided for the ac¬
ceptance of the Illinois and Michigan canal, and for the
construction of the Illinois and Mississippi canal, according
to the project submitted. It failed to become a law.
The river and harbor bill for 1882 also provided for a sur¬
vey of the " Illinois and Desplaines rivers between La Salle
and Joliet in Illinois." Maj. Benyaurd submits his report
March 5, 1884, recommending substantially the Wilson
plan for this section, a slackwater system of six new dams
and nine locks. He also submits estimates for dams with
locks of the size proposed for the Hennepin canal, but he
regards the larger project as in every way more desirable,
and the river improvement as far preferable to the en¬
largement of the canal from La Salle to Joliet. (0
The river and harbor bill for 1886 (August 5th) provided
for a board " whose duty it shall be to examine in all their
relations to commerce, the Illinois and Michigan canal and
the proposed Hennepin canal, to consider their value and
a.11 other matters connected with their usefulness to naviga¬
tion, and shall report upon the acquisition and improve¬
ment of the Illinois and Michigan canal, and the construc¬
tion of the Hennepin canal." The board appointed under
this act, known as the Comstock Board, consisting of Gen.
C. B. Comstock, Lieut. Col. of Engrs., Gen. D. M. Poe,
Lieut. Col. of Engrs. and Jas. C. Post, Maj. of Engrs., sub¬
mitted a report which was transmitted to Congress Janu¬
ary 10, 1887. This report contains much interesting infor¬
mation bearing upon the transportation problem in its rela¬
tion to this route, and upon the impravemtents hitherto
made and projected, (m)
The board concludes that the extension of the improve¬
ments from La Salle to Joliet, on the scale of the lower
river, is " part of a liberal and wise project . . . de-
13
ßi^ned with a view to the extension of river steamboat nav¬
igation of the first class between the Mississippi river and
Lake Michigan;" that were the United States in posses^
sion of the canal, it would be judicious, to abandon it be¬
tween La Salle and Juliet in favor of the river;" and that
" if the conditions of the act of cession were accepted , .
. the United States would be estopped from this course
and compelled to enlarge the canal, notwithstanding its-
greater cost and less efficiency."
The board suggests ' ' that whatever enlargement of the
canal is made from Joliet northward should not be carried
further than the * Sag,' a point where the line of the canal
could be easily diverted to a more favorable terminus."
This is based on the present cro-^ded condition of the Chi¬
cago harbor, the assumption being apparently made that
the necessary facilities can not or will not be provided at
that port.
The board calls attention to the State works at Henry and
Copperas Creek, and eighty-eight miles of river, which'
should be ceded to the United States, in order that there
may nob be diverse authority on different stretches of a.
through route.
The desirability of ceding this stretch of river, and the
expediency of farther surveys from Joliet to Lake Michigan
with a view to another terminus, is mentioned in the report
of Maj. T. H. Handbury, Feb. 10, 1886. (n)
The State of Illinois, in 1887 (Act General Assembly, May
31), ceded ** the locks and dams in the Illinois river, and all
privileges and appurtenances belonging thereto
upon the following express conditions, viz. : The acceptance
of this grant shall be construed as an agreement on the
part of the United States to make the necessary improve¬
ments (to be determined by United States engineers) for a
complete waterway for steam navigation (water seven (7)
feet deep) from the Mississippi river to Lake Michigan, by
way of the Illinois river, the Desplaines river, the Illinois
and Michigan canal, or in part by each or otherwise, as maj^
14
be deemed most practicable by said engineers." This ces-
BÍon is without limitation of time.
(a) History of Chicago, Andreas, Chicago, 7884.
(&) Kept. Secty. Treasury.
(c) New York Canals, Official History, Albany, 1825.
(cZ) Letters on the Internal Improvements and Commerce of
the West by Henry A. S. Dearborn; Boston, 18.^9, page 41.
(e) The history of the Illinois and Michigan Canal is succinctly
given in Chf. Engrs, 1868, pp. 454-5; also Rpt. Comstock Board, pp.
17-19, Ex. Doc. No. 79, H. R. 49th Cong. 2d Ses., 1887.
(/) The writer has added facts culled from State reports and
other sources, some on the authority of Wm. Thomas, formerly
Canal Supt.
(g) Chf. Engrs., 1868, pp. 439 and 460.
{h) Chf. Engrs., 1868, pp. 449-51.
(i) Chf. Engrs., 1875, II, p. 525, et seq.
{J) Chf. Engrs., 1879, p. 1572; 1880, p. 1995. Proceedings Peoria
Con v., pp. 23-4.
{k) Chf. Engrs, 1883, p. 1754, et seq.
il) Chf, Engrs., 1884, p. 1957, et seq.
(m) Ex. Doc. No. 79, H. R. 49th Cong. 2d Ses., 1887.
(n) Ex. Doc. No. 117, H. R. 49th Cong. 1st Ses., 1886.
CHICAGO DRAINAGE AND WATERWAY HISTORY.
Chicago and adjacent territory, an area of 140 square
miles, with a population of 200,000 in 1863, has grown to
about 1,000,000 at the present writing anda conservative
estimate is 2,500,000 in 1910-20. Her lake commerce is
about 8,000,000 tons and her entrances and clearances over
22,000 annually.
The United States opened the mouth of her river, but the
enterprise of her citizens has developed an inner harbor of
453 acres, a length of river channel and slips of twenty-three
and one half miles, or a dock line of about fifty lineal miles.
The expansion goes on, northwest and southwest, in accord¬
ance with the needs of commerce, and may be relied upon
to meet all demands, as new channels of ingress and egress
are provided, as may readily be done, to answer the grow¬
ing needs of vast vested interests. Doubtless these interests
will not be derelict in necessary prevision.
Originally, navigable waters as defined by the land sur-
15
veys, extended inland from Lake Michigran five miles to
Bridgeport, and thence to the navigable waters of the Des-
plaines was reven miles across the portage, reduced one-half
for canoes and keel boats by Mud Lake and overflowed in
high water. From Bridgeport, through the Mud Lake val¬
ley and down the Desplaines was located the Illinois and
Michigan canal and through the Sag, a similar valley to the
south, was led the feeder from the Calumet region to sup¬
ply the summit level.
The site of Chicago, adjacent to the rivers, was low and
had to be raised to a standard of fourteen feet above low
water for proper sewerage. Except in freshet, the river
was stagnant and a sani'ary condition early became a seri¬
ous problem. The Bridgeport pumping station, erected in
1848, for supplying the canal in dry weather, furnished
some relief, and after 1859 was frequently operated for this
purpose at the expense of the city. In the winter of 1866,
river was flushed from the Calumet feeder by the canal.
Various means of relief were considered, among them a
canal across the " divide." Water tunnels were extended
two miles under the lake (1866 and 74); a conduit con¬
structed for circulating the water in the north branch (1874-
80), and the canal deepened at the expense of the city (1866-
71) as already noted. The "deep cut "proved entirely
inadequate to the needs of the city and a most serious nui¬
sance to the people of the Desplaines and Illinois valleys.
In 1877 (September meeting, American Public Health
Association) Mr. E. S. Chesbrough, city engineer since
1855, writes that " it is impossible to tell what the final
solution will be." He thinks that if the canal "could be
doubled in width and deepened enough for steamboats, as
has been proposed, it would be sufficient for more than a
million inhabitants; but that depends on how much filth is
made by a city and what is done with it." His suggestion
(he elsewhere mentions a deepening of two or three feet)
would be equivalent to a channel 120 feet wide and eight or
nine fiiet deep at low water and, on present grade, capable
of discharging at mean lake l|Bvel, 140,000 cubic feet per
16
minute. In his last official report, December 31, 1878, he
sees no present remedy, and none apparently within the
power and means of the city in the early future."
No additional provision has been made since Mr. Ches-
brough's time, farther than the erection of the new Bridge¬
port station (1881-84) as previously noted. Individuals
have suggested plans in endless variation; lake disposal with
the water supply shifted to a remote point, disposal on land
and chemical treatment. A narrow and deep cut of high
grade, siphons and tunnels, across the " divide " to Lake
Joliet, have been proposed, but all these have met the fatal
objection that within practical limits of cost it is not feas¬
ible to carry to the valley more water than is now conveyed
by the canal.
The present sanitary situation calls loudly for relief. The
pollution of the Desplaines and Illinois rivers extends as far
as the mouth of the Fox (eighty-one miles) in summer low
water, and occasionally to Peoria (158 miles) in winter.
Outside of the direct circulation the river harbor is in¬
describable. The spewing of the harbor contents into the
lake, the sewers constantly discharging therein, clouds the
source of water supply with contamination. Relief to Chi¬
cago and equity to her neighbors is a necessity of the early
future.
In September, 1885, a sub-committee of the Citizens' As¬
sociation (0. Guthrie, L. E. Cooley, 0. E. and F. W. Reilly
M. D.), long familiar with the problem and after a com¬
prehensive topographical reconnaissance, made a report,
containing a resume of the sanitary condition and various
plans of relief, and suggesting the following solutions :
That the flood waters of the Desplaines and North
Branch should be diverted to the lake north of this dis¬
trict." (Chicago and immediate suburbs.)
** That an ample channel be created to the Illinois river,
sufficient to carry away in a highly diluted state, the sewage
of a large population—the immediately obvious plan being
by an enlargement of the canal to Summit , its extension at
this point to the bed of the Desplaines and the improvement
17
of the Desplaines as herein indicated, leaving the canal be¬
low Summit in its.present condition."
'*That this channel may be enlarged by the State or
27ational government to any requirement of navigation or
water supply for the lower river, creating, incidentally, a
great water power in the Desplaines valley."
It is stated that ' ' If the project should ever be carried
out with due regard to its possibilities as an aid to naviga¬
tion, over 100,000 horse power would be available," (re¬
quiring 6C0,000 cubic feet per minute) and that there
would be furnished *'an ample water supply for the low-
water navigation of the lower river."
Objections were made to the proposed investigation on
the ground that no comprehensive work copld be carried
out without an amendment to the Constitution, as Chicago
had already reached the limit of her borrowing and taking
power. The Hon. H. B. Hurd suggested the creation of
the Metropolitan Town of Chicago," to include such con¬
tiguous territory as is interested in a common plan of drain¬
age and water supply, with power under the Constitution
to borrow money, levy taxes and such general powers as
were requisite to carry out the objects before deemed im¬
practicable.
The result of the agitation was the appointment of a
Drainage and Water Supply Commission " (authorized by
resolution of the city council, January 27, 1886, amended
February 23), of which the chief engineer, Mr. Rudolph
Hering, was appointed in March, and the consulting engi¬
neers, Messrs. Benezette Williams and S. G. Artingstall, in
September and December, respectively. A preliminary
report was published, Jan. 30, 1887; a special report on
the diversion of the flood waters of the Desplaines river
north of the city, July 24,1887, and after submitting a brief
resume the commission was disbanded, Nov. 5, 1887, before
the investigations were completed and a final report pre¬
pared. Some ^65,000 were expended and ^20.000 more are
probably required to complete the work.
The general conclusions reached were substantially the
18
«ame as those previously published by the Citizens' Associa¬
tion, and showed the desirability of a municipality co-exten-
«ive with the territory to be served. Three methods of
isewage disposal were considered in detail, on the basis of
2,500,000 population : "
1. Discharge of sewage into the lake, shifting the water
supply, etc., " would cost at least ^37,000,000, with an an¬
nual expense for interest and operation ot at least $2,400,000.
It would require an immediate investment of about
$20,000,000.^'
*'To dispose of the entire metropolitan sewage by
filtration on land would require an investment of about
$58,000,000, with an annual expense of over $3,000,000 for
interest, pumping and'maintenance, after deducting profit
from the sale of crops. It would be necessary to invest at
once about $34,000,000."
'3. " The cost of the Desplaines project is approximately
as follows:
~ " A channel from the South Fork (Chicago river) to Joliet
of the capacity hitherto given (600,000 cubic feet per min¬
ute), will cost between $17,000,000 and $21,000,000.
" A diversion of the fiood waters , . . (north of the
city) will cost between $2,500,000 and $2,800,000.
" A channel from Lake Calumet to the Sag (60,000 cubic
feet per minute) will cost between $2/00,000 and
$3,000,000."
Other related works are estimated at $1,100,000 to
$1,150,000.
"The annual cost, including interest, etc., is estimated
at $1,300,000 per annum."
These channels were designed to carry the full quantity
of water under the most unfavorable conditions, to be nav¬
igable to Lockport, and to conduct the water to ijake Joliet.
Besides the economical advantages of the Desplaines
scheme . . . the proposed canal will, from its necessa¬
ry dimensions and regular discharge, produce a magnificent
waterway between Chicago and the Mississippi river, suita¬
ble for the navigation of boats having as much as 2,000
19
tons burden," and establish an available water power •
. . fully twice as large as that of the Mississippi river at
Minneapolis."
Two bills were presented to the General Assembly of Illi¬
nois at the last session (winter of 1887). One, known as the
Winston bill, sought to accomplish some immediate relief,
the money to be raised by special assessment; the other,
known as the Hurd bill, sought to organize a metropolitan
corporation, with power to raise money by the issue of bonds
and otherwise, and with such municipal powers as are re¬
quired to carry out a comprehensive scheme in all its rela¬
tions. The latter bill received the support of the Citizens'
Association.
The joint committee appointed considered the question
for several months, held many public sessions and heard
much testimony on all the points at issue. The river cities
from Joliet to Peoria organized to guard their interests and
insisted that a channel should be specified not less than 160
feet wide, and not Jess than 22 feet deep, to carry not less
than 600,000 cubic feet of water per minute. Other amend¬
ments pertaining to water power, damages, etc., were
likewise incorporated. The Hurd bill as amended was re¬
ported favorably.
Meantime, the question developed such broad relations
and presented so man}'' points of vital interest, that a gen¬
eral conviction prevailed that the studies should be more
fully concluded before legislation was effected, and the bill
was not pressed to a final vote. A bill providing for the di¬
version of the Desplaines, a work antecedent to the main
project, was enacted. A commission of five was also ap¬
pointed to report to the next session of the General Assem¬
bly. Enough is known of the views of the members of this
commission to warrant the statement that it will report in
favor of the Desplaines channel, substantially as contem¬
plated by the Hurd bill.
A history of drainage projects prepared by the writer (unpub¬
lished). Eeports of the Citizens Association. Eeports of Department
Public Works. So far as available for reference, mention is made in
the text.
20
PllESENT PURPOSE AND PAST EFFORTS.
Every bill £or a waterway to Lake Michigan via the Illi¬
nois and Desplaines valleys has been persistently objected to¬
as an attempt to drain Chicago at government expense. On
the contrary, the record shows that she has not sought out¬
side assistance—has created her harbor, deepened the canaL
made other provisions and is preparing to comprehensively
solve her drainage problem.
No navigable channel heretofore contemplated by any
bin, before Congress, or officially projected, would havo
answered her necessities. The pre-occupation of the ground
with such a puny affair would have been her misfortune^
not only for sanitary purposes, but because che upper Illi¬
nois valley is the only route for a great commercial channel
from the Mississippi to the lakes.
Chicago is not only willing to care for her drainage at her
own expense but she is desirous of doing soin such manner
as to confer the greatest benefit on the State and Nation.
Her requirements demand a channel of five times the capac¬
ity of any 3 et proposed for navigation, and a comparatively
small increase in cost will adapt it to commerce through¬
out its length from Chicago to Joliet. At the latter point
will be delivered 600,000 cubic feet of water per minute,
making it practicable to obtain by slackwater, and at min¬
imum cost, a navigable depth of ten feet between Joliet
and La Salle, the present head of navigation on the Illinois.
Below La Salle, full seven feet on the bars will obtain at
once, increasing to ten feet or more through natural forces
and channel treatment in difficult places. Twenty per cent
will be added to the normal low water volume from St.
Louis to Cairo, increasing the depth for navigation about
one foot, and ten per cent, below Cairo, adding not less
than six inches to the navigable depths at low water, (a)
The magnitude of Chicago's requirements, the large vol¬
ume of water to be turned into the Illinois and Mississippi
rivers as shown by her drainage investigations, throws new
light upon the problem of uniting the system of lake
21
navigation with that of the Mississippi and the Gulf, by an
adequate channel. The radical change in the conditions
effecting river commerce due to railway development and
the change in naval requirements, and the improvements
now under way or projected for western rivers by which
greatly increased depths are to be obtained, render the pro¬
ject of twenty years ago inadequate to the commercial
and military utilify of the route. A waterway adequate to
the demand is now practicable at once and for about one-
half the cost to the government of any hitherto proposed;
and it may be so designed as to permit a progressive devel¬
opment to all the future requirements of commerce and
successful competition, (ft)
To Chicago, the disposition of her sewage is a matter of
necessity, and a channel across the " divide is the least
•expensive and the most satisfactory to all concerned. She
is willing to construct this at her own expense, leaving the
General Government to utilize it and the waters it will con¬
tribute to the rivers by putting in the necessary locks and
tdams from the point of discharge into the Desplaines at
ILockport, to La Salle, whence proper depths will obtain
largely by natural flow. These works will be in the line of
further improvements and will exceed in general benefit any
that may be constructed for the same money.
While Chicago is alert that she be not forestalled in a
matter that pertains to the health of her people and that of
the entire Illinois valley, she is fully alive to the commer¬
cial and military advantages, to herself, the State and
the Nation, of restoring the channel between the great
lakes and the Gulf, upon a scale commensurate with the
large interests involved.
' Sitting at the pass of two continental valleys, a great wa¬
terway to the Atlantic, a great waterway to the Gulf, the
center of a territory as resourceful as the world can show—
her latent interest is awakening; she would restore the an¬
cient outlet of the lakes; her thinking men are realizing
ihat this old portage may become the Bosphorus of America,
22
like the Constantinople of old, to possess which was to rule
the world.
As the feasibility of great things dawns, we appreciate
the mistakes of the past and learn new lessons. It was the
noble purpose of great brain and masterful action that car¬
ried through the Erie canal. It was the inspiration of this
achievement that projected the Illinois and Michigan canal
ten feet deep, or for all the depth that could then be car¬
ried to the lower lakes. The abandonment of the deep
channel for a canal of small capacity, located on the higher
ground, was a mistake. Below Joliet is a magnificent river,
available for slackwater; above, the bed of the Desplaines,
Mud Lake, and Chicago river to Lake Michigan. The
same expenditure in reopening this natural channel would
have made a more capacious waterway and in the direction
of future development, and the earnings of so available a
channel devoted to its improvement would long since have
given what we now seek. The deepening of the canal, in
1871, was another error to vex those who would turn to ac¬
count the labors of the past.
No less a mistake would be the Wilson project, so far as
it applies to the Chicago divide. What he considered " im¬
practicable at any reasonable cost," viz., a sufficient water
supply from Lake Michigan, is now obviously the thing to
be done. This dictum was based on a channel 160 feet
wide, eight feet deep, and with a grade of 1.11 feet per
mile, designed to carry 273,000 cubic feet per minute. The
same amount of excavation and more largely in earth, in a
channel of proper proportions, would have given a depth of
over twenty feet and of twice the capacity. Half the exca¬
vation could have provided the volume of water estimated»
Now the General Government is practically offered, free
of cost, a channel that will carry 600,000 cubic feet per
minute across the same "divide," leaving to the United
States only the question of utilizing it.
From 1871, when the deep cut was completed, to 1884,
the canal carried by gravity to the Illinois river from 15,000
to 85,000 cubic feet per minute, sufficient to raise the natu-
23
ral low water at La Salle from five inches to one foot, and
half as much in the lower stretches of the river. From the
spring of 1884 to the summer of 1887, the water pumped
has increased from 30,000 and 40,000 cubic feet to 60,000,
the latter amount being sufficient to raise natural low water
at La Salle about one and two thirds feet.
General Wilson finds that the natural low water volume
of the river below La Salle will only provide a channel four
feet deep and 160 feet wide by dredging through the bars.
Major Lydecker finds that the low water volume below the
Copperas Creek dam (Oct., 1879, 1,566 cubic feet per sec.,
of which one-sixth came from Lake Michigan), will supply
a channel six feet deep and 200 feet wide through the bars.
The discrepancy between his results and those of General
Wilson is ascribed to the omission of the stretch above Cop¬
peras Creek, then slackwatered; but certainly the contribu¬
tion from the canal in 1887, not less than half the total vol¬
ume passing La Salle, would have,enabled a six feet naviga¬
tion to be obtained from La Salle to the mouth.
The cost of the present project for the lower river, when
completed, and that of the deep cut,, had they been expend¬
ed for a proper channel across the Chicago " divide," would
have made it feasible to obtain not less than seven feet—
probably eight—by channel works below La Salle, and all
improvement obtained would have stimulated further de¬
velopments. Even the operation of the present canal to its
fullest capacity would raise natural low water at La Salle
about two feet, and would doubtless make the projected
seven feet possible without the locks and dams.
a.
The volume now proposed (600,000 cubic feet per minute)
to be taken across the divide, can as cheaply be taken to Lake
Joliet in a deep channel as in any other way, and so designed
as to permit its enlargement to any future requirement of
water supply to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Lake
Joliet IS deep and capacious, and no difficulty presents itself
in carrying any depth to below the mouth of the Kankakee,
or 60 miles from Lake Michigan. Over the next 40 miles,
ten feet may be readily obtained, but greater depths will
2-4
require heroic treatment. From La Salle out any depth is
simply a question of water supply and channel treatment.
We may believe that if a progressive development is per¬
mitted in the design it will be availed of. Even in the be-
ginning the carrying of the largest depths to Lake Peoria,
might be justified, as that capacious and deep body of water,
some twenty miles long and a mile wide in places, is ad¬
mirably adapted to a naval station. There would then re¬
main for future development simply the question of further
water supply.
Profoundly impressed with these possibilities, it is with
deep concern that Chicago views any project which in its
ultimate development will not permit their realization. In
meeting present needs, why is it not feasible to some time
make practicable the possible?
RECENT POPULAR ACTION.
Equally interested with Chicago in this proposed work
are all the coràmunities adjacent to the route. This interest
has spread to the people of the State generally, and to the
communities adjacent to the Mississippi river. As the pos¬
sibilities of a really great waterway from the lakes to the
Gulf become more widely known, it will enlist the support
of the commlinities about the great lakes and those along the
great tributaries, the upper Mississippi, the Missouri, the
Ohio, the Arkansas and the Red, which are thus increased
in importance as parts of a grand system. It will be the
stimulus to the development of a waterway of similar capac¬
ity from the lakes to tidewater of the Hudson river, in
which Chicago and the West have a like commercial interest.
It is the new thought in this regard which found expres¬
sion at the Illinois River Improvement Convention (held at
Peoria, October 11 and 12, 1887). Its resolutions state that
**the proper improvement of the Illinois and Desplaines
rivers with a few miles of wide and deep channel, will con¬
nect 1,660 miles of large river navigation with 1,700 miles
of lake navigation, all within the boundaries of the United
States, permeating the heart of the Republic, furnishing
25
añore miles of inland navigation than exists in any other
portion of the world." Congress is urged to " accept the
locks and dams ceded to the general government by the
'State of Illinois," and *'to provide for the appointment of
.a corps of United States engineers to make surveys and in¬
vestigations, and report the feasibility and estimated cost
of developing a waterway from Joliet to Lake Michigan at
"the city of Chicago, suitable for the largest river steamers
and capable of drawing from said lake not less than 600,000
feet of water per minute, with a current suitable for navi¬
gation purposes, and to report the effects thereof upon the
waters and navigation of the Desplaines, Illinois and Mis¬
sissippi rivers."
A resolution was adopted and an executive committee
.appointed with a view, among other things, to pressing this
¡matter upon the consideration of Congress and also to hold¬
ing a national convention in September, 1888.
The Western Waterways Convention (Memphis, October
'20-21, 1887) resolved, That this convention approves the
proposed improvement of the connection between Lake
Michigan at Chicago and the Mississippi river, and the con¬
struction between those places of a wide and deep waterway,
suitable for the free passage of the largest river steamers,
-and for naval vessels for defense in time of war, and which
at the same time will afford permanently a large supply of
water to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers."
The Farmers' Congress of the United States (Chicago,
November 11-12, 1887), "regards as of the highest impor¬
tance to the agricultural interests of the country the early
completion of the project of connecting the Great Lakes
with the Gulf of Mexico by means of a water route from
Lake Michigan at Chicago to the Desplaines rirer, thence by
way of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to the Gulf of Mex¬
ico, and that the United States engineers be directed to
^report on the feasibility and approximate cost of the under¬
taking, and that such water route shall be of such capacity
as to allow of the passage of the largest river steamers and
^f all naval vessels in time of war."
26
The Executive Committee of the Peoria Convention has
prepared a memorial and a bill calling for a mixed military
and civilian board to consider what may be feasible and to
value the several interests which should contribute to its
consummation.
The burden of our effort is not only to prevent that which
we do not want—that which is believed to be of little utility
if not a positive injury, but to take in at once all the obviou»
interests and by harmonizing them make them work
together to the accomplishment of the grand results to
which they so happily point.
Part IT.
(A Brief—Pro and Con.)
A. the trunk waterway.
1. The Canadian canal system, connecting Lake Erie via
Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence with tide water at Mon¬
treal, now nearly completed, is designed with locks 270 feet
long, forty-five feet wide and fourteen feet deep on miter
sills. Very extensive work in the St. Lawrence would be
required to obtain depths materially greater. A canal up
the Ottawa to Georgian Bay has been projected, saving 270
miles from Lake Michigan and Lake Superior points to Mon¬
treal, over the St. Lawrence route.
(See Appendix, 6.)
2. The present project of the United States contemplates
twenty feet for lake navigation. The improvements are
nearly completed at the "Lime Kilns," Detroit river;(a)
nineteen feet are projected for the St. Clair Flats CanaT
enlargement dn a mud and sand bottom, (h) and twenty feet
for the St. Mary's river and the new Sault canal lock, (c)
Vessels of eighteen to twenty feet draft, depending on stage-
of water, will be able to navigate the lakes, or of the capac¬
ity of ocean vessels (4,000 to 5,000 tons cargoj except a few
of the Atlantic ferry. The greater economy of the larger
vessels may still enable transfer to be made to canal and;
27
railway at American ports as against througli transport in
smaller vessels by the Canadian canals, (d) It appears tobe
the history of commerce that exports follow the lines of max¬
imum domestic traffic and consumption.
(a) Rept. Chf. Eng., U. S. A. 1885, p. 2161.
(b) Rept. Clif. Eng., U. S. A. 1885, p. 2>60.
(c) Rept. Chf. Eng.. U. S. A. 1884, p. 20.1; 1885, p. 2104 and 2099.
Proceedings of Waterways Convention, Saiilt St. Marie, July 20,.
1887, p. 20.
(d) Rept. State Engr., New York, 1879. pp. 9 and 49.
Note. See also Transactions Am. Soc. C. E., 1885, pp. 86-7.
3. A canal with eighteen feet of water and locks sixty
feet wide and 450 feet long, with descending lockage, has
been proposed through the State of x^ew York from Lake
Erie to tide water of the Hudson, (a) The topography ist
favorable to a bolder project, admitting boats of high speed
and of the draft found feasible for the lakes. No other
route for a ship canal to the Atlantic seaboard exists in
American territory and along the lines of established trans¬
portation.
(a) Transactions of American Society of Civil Engineers, 1885,
p. 86, eiseq. Paper by E. Sweet, Jr., State Engineer of New York, and,
discussions Estimate 8125,000,000 to 8150,000,000; some put it as higli,
as 8240,000,000. Detail surveys have not been made.
4. As an engineering proposition, it is entirely feasible-
to restore the ancient outlet of the upper lakes to the extent
required to develop twenty feet of water from Lake Michi¬
gan to the Gulf of Mexico and to do all work necessary to*
maintain lake levels and the navigation of the St. Lawrence,,
and at a cost less than a ship canal of the same capacity
through the State of New York, (a)
(a) This possibility was hinted at in a speech before the Com¬
mercial Club of Chicago in December, 1886, and more fully presented
in the New Year's message of the Chicago Daily News. See pamphlet,
" Future of Chicago," January, 1887. The idea was also presented in
an address beiore the Chicago Academy of Sciences, Chicago.—See
Daily News and Inter Ocean of February 9, 1887.
5. It is practicable without impairing the level of the^
lakes or their connecting rivers for the purpose of naviga¬
tion, or raising any extraordinary issues, to abstract there¬
from enough water, in connection with the fullest develop-
28
Mnent of the reservoir system eji the upper Mississippi, to
r^reatly increase the depths obtainable by channel correc¬
tion, or to obtain not less than fifteen feet at lowest water,
probably more, from Lake Michigan to the Grulf of Mexi¬
co. ia)
(a) See Appendices, 8 and 9.
6. The depths obtainable by increased low water flow,
in conjunction with channel correction, are greater than
are possible by either method alone; and the cost of the
results obtained by the increased flow will be less in pro¬
portion to benefits, more widely useful as the work pro-
:gresses and less expensive to maintain than by the method
•of channel correction alone. In addition there are devel¬
oped an extensive system of highly improved tributaries
^nd large and reliable water powers, (a)
(a) See Appendix, 9.
7. The permanent works on the lakes and gulf route,
for a large channel, are restricted to a section 100 miles
long and a descent of 140 feet, with forty miles of wholly
artificial channel; while the St. Lawrence route has sev¬
enty-one miles of artificial channel and 5333^^ feet of
lockage (a); and the New York route by present Erie canal
352 miles of artificial channel and 6563^ feet of lock-
age (6) ; and by the boldest ship canal project which could
be made, say 150 miles of artificial channel and 550 feet of
lockage. It extends for 1,684 miles through territory of the
United States. In connection with the project entered
upon for the improvement of the Mississippi below St. Louis,
less additional expenditure than has been made on the St.
Lawrence route would secure as great a depth (c) perhaps
greater, to the Gulf. The investment represented by the
canal system of New York {d) might secure all the depth
desirable.
,{a and b) Rpt, State Eng. New York, 1879, pp. 45-6.
f(c) St. Lawrence route, $54,000,000; Depth 14 ft. See App. 6.
v(d) Cost UiO to 1878, $81,577,993. See Appendix, 6.
S. A trunk waterway via the Lakes from the Atlantic
to the Gulf, would make tributary every interior navigable
29
water ; (a) would avoid transshipment, even at the coast;:
would pass by forty-five cities of over 10,000 inhabitants-
each, and an aggregate population of 4,500,000, and in tho
circuit by the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, would reach
per cent, of the population gathered in cities. (5) In carry¬
ing out such a project, large tributary waterways would also-
be improved {c)
(a) Improvable streams tributary to the trunk in the Mississippi
valley, for fair class of boats, about 10,000 miles. Of these 5,800 mile?
are arterial streams. See Appendix, 7.
(b) Only 20 per cent of the city population is inland or on-
the Pacific slope. The trunk, by tide water or arterial tributaries-
will reach 80 per cent of the city population. Minor streams not-
included. See Appendix, 7,
(c) See Appendix, 9.
9. The Illinois section of this waterway is the cheapest
in first cost, is of the greatest commercial and military util¬
ity and extends its benefits most widely for the expendi¬
ture.
B. THE MODIFIED WILSON PROJECT.
The several partial projects enumerated below are virtu¬
ally, in detail the carrying out of the project formulated'
by Genl. Jas. H. Wilson, 1866-8. The locks are 350 feet
long, seventy-five feet wide, with seven feet on miter sills,-
supposed to be sufficient for all the depth available for nav¬
igation in western rivers and the minimum for naval use. It
was stated that naval vessels of deeper draft might pass by
partial dismantling and by the use of lifting barges.
See " State and National History."
They are:—
1. To complete two locks and dams, one at LaGrange
and one at Kampsville, and'dredge to a uniform seven feet
at low water from Copperas creek dam to the mouth.
See project of Maj, Lydeeker, May 10,1880, and reports to date.
Reports Chf. Eng. U. S. A. 1880, et seq.
2. To accept the State works at Henry and Copperas
Creek " and all privileges and appurtenances pertaining^
thereto."
Rept Comstock-Boards Jan'y, 1887;
80
The State of Illinois offers them to the General Government on
the condition that it will complete a waterway of seven feet depth
for steam navigation to Lake Michigan, in such manner "as may be
deemed most practical." See Act of General Assembly of Illinois,
May 31, 1877.
3. To continue the improvement on the same scale, as
now in progress on the lower river from La Salle to Dam
No. 1, Joliet.
Kept. Maj. W. H. H, Benyaurd, March 5,1884. Chf. Engrs. U.
S. A. 1884.
4. To make a survey from Joliet to Lake Michigan with
a view to a channel of same capacity across the Chicpgo
*'divide" and also for some other terminus than Chicago,
the one hitherto proposed.
Repts. Comstock Board; also Maj. T. H. Handbury, Rpt. Chf^
Engrs. U. S. A. 1886. See speech Maj. Handbury. Proceedings
Peoria Convention of Oct, 11 and 12, 1887. He says the summit level
may be made deeper so as to pass deeper boats in high stages of the
river below. The flood stages of the upper river are too brief to make
such provis ion available.
C. THE LITTLE WATER PROJECT IN"ADEQUATE.
1. Standard down river boats between St. Louis and
New Orleans carry nine feet depth when the water is in the
channel.
The standard Anchor Line side wheel boats have nine feet
holds, and exceed 800 feet in length and eighty feet in width over
the guards, and carry over 2,000 tons of freight. Extreme low water
sometimes reaches flve to six feet on the bars. Chf. Engr. Rpt. 1875
II, 518-19. Genl. Wilson contemplated that boats of 800 to 1,000 tons'
only could pass to Lake Michigan. Chf. Eng. Rpt. 1868.
2. Extreme low water in the Mississippi below the Illi¬
nois is much loss frequent than in any tributary and espe¬
cially is this true of the Illinois. In other words, good boat¬
ing stages will often prevail in the main river when the
Illinois is low.
It is a notable fact that, in proportion to drainage area, low
water volume increases down the main stream. This is probably be¬
cause low water in the several tributaries seldom occurs in conjunc¬
tion.
3. The present improvements from St. Louis to Cairo
31
are based on securin^^ a depth of eight feet at extreme low
water; {a) the Mississippi River Commission recommend
that the project be amended to ten feet. (6) The improve¬
ments below Cairo contemplate ten feet at extreme stages, (c)
This means that boats will be built to carry twelve to fifteen
feet or the depth which may usually be relied upon after the
improvements are made.
(a) Kept. Chf. Engr. U. S. A. 1875, IT. 483.
(&) Kept. Miss. Riv. Com. Nov., 1881, pp. 19 and 20.
(c) Rept. Miss. Riv. Com., Feb., 1880, p. 17.
4. All experience abroad, and in this country as well,
shows that any increase in depth, but demonstrates the util¬
ity of greater depths until the most desirable depth is
reached. No one will be satisfied with the depths now pro¬
posed on the Mississippi when once obtained.
An illustration in point: Bat nine and one-half feet could be
carried through the St. Clair flats previous to 1858, twelve to thirteen
feet up to 1874, and sixteen feet since. Present projects contemplate
a depth of twenty ieet for the lakes. Trans. Am. See. C. E. 1885, p.
86.
5. Such gunboats as could pass through this improvement
on a draft of seven feet, even with the aid of camels (lifting
barges), are not now an available craft against swift, nar¬
row, heavily armored vessels of fourteen feet draft which
could reach the lakes by the Canadian canals. They would
be wide, fiat, slow, unwieldy in a seaway, and incapable of
carrying heavy armor and armament.
The St. Lawrence canals carried but nine feet and the Welland
but ten feet when the Wilson project was matured, aud their enlarge
ment was not projected until 1871.
6. The experience on our western rivers show that navi-
gation by small or shallow draft boats is a menace to
freight rates rather than of importance in increasing the
commercial movement. The progressive deepening of lake
navigation and the improvement in vessels and in machin¬
ery enables lake navigation to more than hold its own, an
advantage which would be greatly multiplied could the
largest craft pass to the coast, eastward and southward,
without transshipment of cargo. No freight carrier of less
than 1,000 tons of cargo and moving with some dispatch and
B2
certainty can hope to develop actual traffic and dependent
industries under the transportation conditions of the future.
This is the reason of the decay of business on small canals.
(5) See Appendix, 11. The statement in this section, liable
to awaken inquiry, will be more obvious after consulting the
appendices.
D. THE LITTLE WATER PROJECT UNSANITARY AND DE¬
STRUCTIVE OP NATURAL RIVER.
1. The lower Illinois falls but twenty-seven feet in 225-
miles and is sluggish and stagnant. On such a stream^
locks and dams promote channel decay, or the filling up of
the pools.
Local storms sometimes sweep out years' accumulations of de¬
tritus from the mouths of streams and quite obliterate the channel.
Chf. Eng. Rpt. 1872, p. 313, the effect of such occurrences will be-
multiplied by slackwater.
2. Slackwater will cause moderate fioods to rise higher
than the same depth obtained by the natural flow of a con¬
stant water supply, both in the lower and upper river.
The moderate floods which often occur in the tilling season are
those which occasion damage to crops. Flood discussion, see testi¬
mony before Special Joint Committee General Assembly of Illinois,
April 7,1887, p. 21 et seq.
3. The slackwater is less healthful than a continuous
live stream. This is the experience of those who are famil¬
iar with the river.
This statement is made from conditions independent of sewage
pollution.
4. The present natural water supply of the river is inad¬
equate to the present pollution (occasioned by stagnation
aided by the dams and sewage of the towns along its
course) without the water supplied by the Illinois and Mich¬
igan canal from Lake Michigan even it the river received
no sewage from Chicago. This supply was probably over
33
one-half of the low water flow past Peoria during the low
water season of 1887.
At Morris, the water was as low as known for fifty years, not¬
withstanding that the fiow in the canal was raised to 60,000 feet per
minute or considerably in excess of former years. The low water
discharge of the Illinois and the proportion of canal watef-is given
in testimony referred to in section two, page eleven et seq.
The smell of sewage was noticeable on the Marseilles rapids but
fish were not disturbed from their usual habits below the Kankakee,
except in the pool below Peoria, where they died.
5. The Wilson plan only contemplated a water supply
from lake Michigan of 60,000 to 80.000 cubic feet per min¬
ute, and, as reported upon by Col. Macomb, of 124,000 feet.
(See State and National History.) The larger quantity is
but fifty per cent, in excess of the operating capacity of the
Illinois and Michigan canal. If any such project is con¬
summated, it will create a nuisance over 300 miles long,
and its inauguration is protested against on the score of
health.
The State Board of Health has already considered the pollution
of the Illinois river and the remedies proposed. -
6. To carry through any plan similar to that of Genl.
Wilson will be to largely inhibit the use of the Desplaines
and Illinois rivers for sewage disposal. This is a matter per¬
taining to the police power of the State and ought not to
be overlooked on any account. It is the duty of the State
to jealously guard the interests of its citizens so that they
need not be put to enormous and unnecessary expense for
other means of sanitary relief.
7. Chicago could better afford to build a waterway for
vessels of twenty feet draft to the mouth of the Illinois than
to be shut out of the Illinois valley. The construction of
an inadequate waterway would have this practical effect.
Estimates of other drainage plans for Chicago, see " Chicago
Drainage and Waterway History."
B. THE SMALLEST PEKMISSIBLE CHANNEL.
1. This, as reported to the General Assembly of Illinois,
by the Special Joint Committee in the spring of 1887, was
to be not less than 160 feet wide and not less than twenty-
84
two feet deep, and was to carry not less tban 600,000 cubic
feet of water per minute from Lake Michigan at Chicago to
the Desplaines at Lockport. Works necessary to conduct
the water safely to Lake Joliet were also required.
2. This volume was to be sufficient to serve the sanitary
needs of Chicago until her population exceeded 2,500,000,
as also the communities adjacent to the Desplaines and Illi¬
nois rivers.
See Testimony before Special Joint Com., Apr. 7,1887, pp. 10 and
84. Preliminary Rpt. Drng. Com., Jan. 1887.
3. Seven feet would be given in the lower river without
locks and dams, converting it into a live stream. This
would increase to ten feet or more, aided by channel work
in difficult places; (a) and a still greater depth could be ob¬
tained by comprehensive work. Seven feet would be ob¬
tained on the upper river, from Lake Joliet to La Salle,
with fewer locks and dams and for one-half the present esti¬
mate. (5) A project for ten feet may be readily made.
(a) Testimony, p^ge 26. See Appendix, 9.
(5) Testimony,-pages 22 and 24
Roughly estimate!, about 25,003,000 yards of material must be
moved to furnish a channel through the bars below La Salle, 300
feet w de, and for fourteen feet of water, costing, say, 85,000,000.
4. The permanent works may be so designed as to per¬
mit the development in the future, of a depth for naviga¬
tion of fifteen to twenty feet to the mouth of the Illinois, by
means of channel works and additional water supply.
5. The cost from Lake Michigan to Lake Joliet, for a
channel of twenty feet, and for so constructing the permanent
works below, as ultimately to permit this depth throughout,
is considerably less than double that required to complete
the modified Wilson project to Lake Michigan
See Appendices, 2 and 4.
6. The expense necessarily incurred by the city of Chi¬
cago, to solve her drainage problem, if applied to this
project, will make it cost less to the United States than to
carry out the modified Wilson project.
See Appendix, 2.
7. It will substantially benefit the navigation of the
85
Mississippi, adding some 20 per cent, to low water volume
at and below St. L^uis, or a depth of about one foot on
the bars; and ten per cent, below Cairo, or six inches
to the low water depths.
See Appendix, 9.
8. No reason exists why this should not be so designed
as to be a link in a future waterway from the Hudson river
via the Lakes to the Gulf, and so a.s to admit a progressive
development to any desirable depth—ultim iteiy for vessels
of the largest class which may float the lakes.
F. CHICAGO'S POSITION.
1. Chicago's requirements are such that she can not endure
the construction of works, in the Desplaines and upper Illi¬
nois valleys, upon a scale that will not admit of the dis¬
charge of a volume of water adequate to sanitary purposes.
2. At the same time, Chicago is most vitally interested
in a commercial waterway adequate to the growing demands
—one that may be enlarged as shall be required without the
loss of what has been done.
8. Chicago is especially desirous that the large expendi¬
tures which her situation calls for should be turned to com¬
mercial account, as can be done to the manifest advantage
of all concerned.
4. The interest of the people of the Illinois valley in a
big waterway, are in harmony with those of Chicago on
both sanitary and commercial grounds.
5. So great are the possibilities of the Chicago divide"
that all interests feel great concern in regard to any project
which does not consider and provide for the solution of all
the problems of which the Desplaines and Illinois valleys
.are capable.
G. OBJECTIONS TO THE BIG WATEH PROJECT.
1. A disastrous lowering of the lake surface has been
predicted. Conceding every limitation, the lowering of the
neian level of Lakes Michigan and Huron would be less than
86
six inches, and less still of Lake Erie. The actual lowering
might not be perceptible. Owing to variations in rainfalls,
evaporation, wind effects, surface fluctuations, etc. (meteor¬
ological conditions which it is not possible to value with
sufficient accuracy), it is doubtful if observations on lake
level for many years could assign a definite amount, or rec¬
ognize the change.
See Appendix 8,
It is stated that the current in the channel across the
divide and in the Illinois river will be objectionable. The
deep channel with a current of two miles per hour will be
more readily navigable for steam craft than the Wilson chan¬
nel without any current at all. Up stream navigation on
the Illinois will not be impeded and down stream naviga¬
tion will be promoted.
See Appendix, 10.
8, Sewage disposal in streams is stated to be barbarous.
No large city has resorted to other methods except from
necessity. Sewage farming has seldom paid the cost of
operation, without considering the enormous investment.
Chemical treatment, thus far, is but partial purification and
has not proved a commercial success. Sewage disposal in
running streams may be made a nuisance, just as land dis¬
posal may, by an excess of sewage. It is safe to say that
neither London, Paris or Berlin would have resorted to
chemical treatment and sewage farming, had adequate
water disposal been available, or had they the advantages of
Chicago's site.
The minimum dry weather flow of the Thames is about 36,000
cubic feet per minute, or about the same as the Illinois river at La
Salle. London, however, is at the head of the tidal reach and is
affected thereby.
The minimum flow of the Seine at Paris Is about 100,000 cubic
feet per minute, or that of the Ohio at Pittsburg. The Spree, at Ber¬
lin, is quite insignificant, a sluggish bayou not unlike the Chicago or
Calumet river. The literature relating to sewage disposal is very
voluminous. A very good resume is presented in a report by E. C.
Clarke, Engineer of the Massachusetts Drainage Commission, Boston.
1886. The last report of the Royal Commission on Metropolitan
Sewage Discharge, London, 1884, is very complete in detail testimony
of experts.
37
4. Co-operation in carrying out an enterprise of mutual
benefit is stated to be contrary to the policy of the General
Government. This is a new doctrine. In early days, the
policy of the United States was to promote public enter¬
prises by subsidies to state or other corporations. Direct
co-operation has occurred whenever it could be justified by
public interests or on business principles. This co-opera¬
tion has taken nearly every conceivable form.
(a) Grants of land to states: Illinois and Michigan canal, Pox-
Wisconsin canal, Louisville and Portland canal, SaultSt. Marie canal.
(&) Improvement of public waters by states: Monongahela,
Kentucky, Greene, Muskingum and Hudson rivers.
(c) Improvement of public v\ aters by cities : Chicago and other
lake cities, Mississippi at St. Louis, Kansas City on Missouri.
(d) Joint work: Improvement of Hudson, levees on Missis¬
sippi, Copperas Creek lock on the Illinois Chicago harbor.
(€) Cities have appropriated moneys to be expended by th«
United States : Galveston, Falls of St. Anthony.
(/) United States has contracted for works as a whole on out¬
side plans: Opening of the mouth of the Mississippi.
Many others might be added.
H. RECOMMENDATIONS.
The appointment of a mixed commission to consider the
whole problem in all its different magnitudes; the several
interests involved, local, State and National ; to properly
value said interests with a view to their co-operation in car¬
rying out some plan which will be to their mutual advan¬
tage and which will serve the requirements of the immedi¬
ate future, and, at the same time, to so design the works as
to permit their development for all future requirements
and to the limits of usefulness.
38
Appendix No. 1—Expenditures.
Illinois and Michigan Canal,
State of Illinois. (Ex. Doo. No. 79, H. R., 49tli Cong,
2d ses.)
Original cost of construction {^6,557,681.60
Refunded to City of Chicago Oct. 20th, 1871.. 2,955,840.00
Total by State S9,513,021.50
Net receipts to Dec. 1, 1885 ^8,805,080 29
Amount received from land sales to Dec.1,1885 $5,892,707.90
Expenditure in excess of net receipts, inter¬
est not included ....$ 707,941.21
Expenditure in excess of land grant receipts,
interest not included $8,620,313.64
Valuation of unsold lands, Dec. 1, 1885 $ 166,023.50
City of Chicago (Rpts. Board of Public Works).
Expenditure on canal deepening in excess of
reimbursement by State (Rept. for
1871) $ 375,543.71
Bridgeport Pumping Works (Rept. for 1886) 282,000.49
Total by Chicago $ 657.544.20
Total by State $9,513,021.50
Cost of canal as now operated, not including
interest $10,170,565.70
Illinois River below La Salle.
United States. (Ex. Doc. No. 64, 48th Cong., 1st ses.)
Appropriated Aug. 30, 1852 $ 30,000
July 11, 1870 100,000
" Mar. 8, 1873 100,000
" ' June 23, 1874 75,000
" Mar. 3,1875 75,000
39
•• Aug. 14, 1886 40,000
June 18. 1878 75,000
" Mar. 3, 1879 40,000
June 14, 1880 110,000
" Mar. 3, 1881 250,000
" Aug. 2, 1882 175,000
By specific appropriation Ç1,070,000
(See Index, Rpts. Chf. Engrs.)
By allotment from Appro, for Western
Rivers, 1867 ^0,000
Executive allotment, 1869 84,150
»104,150
(River and Harbor Bills.)
July 5, 1884 »100,000
Aug. 5,1886 112,500
»212,500
Total to date »1,386,650
In addition some small amounts have been allotted for
surveys.
Of the total, »737,500, or thereabouts, have been applied
to the two locks and dams at La Grange and Kamps vil le.
State of Illinois (Chf. Engr., 1880, p. 1996.)
Locks and dams Henry and Copperas Creek »747,747
The sum of »62,359.80 was expended by the United
States on the foundations of the Copperas Creek lock. In¬
cluding this and dredging in the pool above, the total is
about »150,000, expended on State work. (Chf. Engrs.,
1879, p. 1577.)
Total by United States »1,386,650
Total by State of Illinois 747,747
Total Illinois river ....$2,134,897
Chicago Harbor.
1838-85 $1,729.005
R. & H. Bill 1886 75,000
Total $1,804,005
This has been expended for harbor entrances and outside
40
breakwaters. In this the city, 1864-5, expended $75,000.
The eify has spent large sums in dredging the river and
private parties have developed the interior facilities.
Calumet Uarhor and River,
1870-85 $432,000
1886 40,000
Total $472,000
Of this $80,000 is for Calumet river.
Appendix No. 2—Estimates.
1. Chf. Erjgr., 1868, p. 453, by GenT J. H. Wilson and
Wm. Gooding, Board of Engineers. Slackwater improve¬
ment, with locks 350 x 75 x 7, and summit canal 160 ft. wide
and 6 ft. deep at extreme low water;
Chicago to Lockport, 29 miles... $11,249,173.98
Lockport to Lake Joliet, 7 2,095,546.53
Lake Joliet to La Salle, 63 " 2,918,922.05
La Salle to mouth, 223 1,983,600.00
Total, 322 miles $18,217,242.56
2. Chf. Engr., 1868, p. 449, by S. T. Abert. By dredg¬
ing and wing dams to give an available depth of 4 feet on
natural water supply:
La Salle to mouth $1,528,450.00
8. To give six feet by a water supply from Lake Michi¬
gan, more than $38,000,000.
4. Chf. Engrs., 1875, II, 524-30. By P. C. Doran, un¬
der Col, Macomb. Locks to be same as proposed by Gen U
Wilson, and summit canal eight feet deep;
Chicago to Joliet, 32.65 miles $11,532,932.40
Joliet to La Salle, 66.63 ** 4,347,879.80
Total to La Salle, 99.28 miles $15,880,812.20
5. Chf. Engrs., 1880, p. 1997. By Maj. G. T. Lydecker.
To secure six ft. in a channel 200 ft. wide, on present water
supply, by dredging and wing dams, from Copperas Creek
to mouth, 136J¿ miles, $1,222,500.
6. Slackwater by two dams and dredging, $1,000 000.
7. Chf. Engrs., 1883, p. 1762. By Maj. W. H. H, Ben-
41
yaurd, for enlargfement of Illinois and Michigan Canal, Chi¬
cago to La Salle, to be 80ft. wide at surface, 59 ft. bottom,
7 ft. deep, with locks 170x30x7 ft., $2,298,919.15.
8. Chf. Engrs., 1884, p. 1959. By G. Y. Wisner, under
Maj. Benyaurd. For continuing a 7 ft. navigation, with
same locks as proposed by Gen'l Wilson, La Salle to Dam
No. 1, Joliet, 64.2 miles, $3,433,562.
9. For locks 170x30 ft, as proposed for the Hennepin
Canal, $1,975,446.
10. To complete existing project from Copperas Creek
to mouth, $587,500. (See Proceedings Peoria Con v. p. 24.)
11. Preliminary Eept. Chicago Drainage Com., Jan.,
1880. R. Hering, B. Williams and S. G. Artingßtall. A
channel to carry 600,000 cu. ft. per minute from Chicago to
Lake Joliet, and to be complete for navigation to Lockport.
Between $17,000,000 and $21,000,000.
12. A channel from Lake Calumet to a junction with the
main channel at Sag, to carry 60,000 cu. ft. per minute.
Between $2,500,000 and $3,000,000.
42
Appendix No. 3. {Illustrated.)
Chicago Ditide Channels. Capacity, 600,000 cu. ft. per minute under one
foot of ice at extreme low water. Flow regulated by weir at Lockpoit.
Orade nominal; depth extreme low water; sides nearly Tertical, walled iu
rock and docked in clay.
Drainage Commission.
(Used as basis of estimate in Preliminary Report, Jan. 30, 1887, but with*
out recommendation.)
Cross-section, 3.C00 sa. ft. Grade oí bottom ft. per mile.
Minimum Channel.
(Insisted upon by Desplaines and Illinois valley interests, and incorporated
in Hurd Bill. April, 1887.)
160'
A
22'
v/
Cross-section 3,520 sq. ft. Grade H it.
CooLET Channel.
(Proposed Feb. 8,1887, Academy of Sciences Lecture; also, Testimony before
Joint Committee, April 7, 1887 )
150t p—»
24'
Cross-section, 3,600 sq. ft. Nominal grade, X ÍI»
Wilson Canal.
(See Bpt. Chf. Engrs., 1868, page 441.)
160'
140'
Cross-section, 1,002 sq. ft. Grade, 1-10 ft. per mile. Capacity, 60,000 CO. ft»
yer minute. Mean lake, 82,000 cu. ft.
Macomb Canal.
(Proposed by G. P. Low, 0. B., Kept. Chf. Engrs., 1875, II, 528 )
160'
i
132'
Cross-section, 1.168 sq. ft. Grade, 0.28 ft. per mile. Capacity, 124,043 cn. ft.
per minute. In rock, 150 ft. wide with nearly vertical sides.
Hennepin Canal. III. and Mich. Canal.
(Bept. Chf. Engrs., 1883, II, 1761. (Notes in U. S. Engr's Offlce.)
Proposed extension to Chicago bv Mean section of summit level as per
«nlnrgement of 111. and Mich, canal, surveys, Sept. and Oct.. 1882.
-yia&i
6yf 46'
Cross-section, 485 sq. ft. Cross-section, 370 sq. ft
The above sections are referred to the stage of the lake at time of survey
<2 ,2 to 2.4 ft.), assumed at 2 ft, above low water. The canals were to be fed
With 60,000 cu. It. per minute by the Bridgeport pumps ertcted by Chicago.
43
COMPARATIVE CANAL SECTIONS.
Suez Canal (deep cut).
190;;
2614'
72'
Cross-section, 2860 sq. fl.
Panama Canal (earth).
164'
2854'
72?
Cross-section 3,300 sq. ft.
(Deep eut in rock.)
103'
/\
29)4'
y
79'
Cross-section 2,680 sq. it.
Eeib Ship Canal (proposed by E. Sweet, C. E.).
175'
A
18'
100'
Cross-section 2.500 sq. it. Looks, 450' x 60' x 18'.
Welland Canal (deep cut).
160'
íP
100'
Cross-section 2,100 sq. ft. Locks 270x45x14'.
Manchester ship canal, proposed. Width , depth 26 ft. Lock»
550x60 ft. Length 35 miles. Lockage 60)4 ft. Estimate, ^0,000,000.
Erie Canal (as now constructed).
Deep cut, above Lockport, East of Rochester.
100' V 70'
V
:8'
96'
62)4'
Cross-section 784 sq. ft. Cross-section 464 sq. ft.
Rock Cut, Lockport. General section, eastern Dir.
62'
r-
X.
70'
IT
62' 56/
Cross-section 558 sq. ft. Cross-section 441 sq. ft.
Below Lockport, N. Y.
100'
XIZ
Ä.
79'
Cross-section 760 sq. ft.
evans
)rw:ood\ park ' ^
Jefferson®
maywood
wiheaton
pivjrsipe
>vestern sprii'gi
vrnm
Hinsdale
downer's grojo
willow springs
bag bridg^i^-.
lemoni'^h
'. plomeo
n piñlmari
kensington^
tßo^t 'íw >cn'
^ ^ ^p^hammond
'* Mivmf
ldokport
Low Waitr
■e Michigan
muesls 1 la u 13 12 u 10
'nmies 17 16 15 n 13 12 n 10
jouet
lemon
Miles
A, Zeese A Co-i Engrs-i Chi,
45
Appendix No. 4. [Map and Profile,)
The Chicago Divide properly extends from Lake Mich¬
igan, 40 miles to Lake Joliet, 77 ft. below lake level,
though it reaches lake level in 80 miles at Romeo. Lake
Joliet is a deep pool, 53^ miles long and averaging 600 feet^
wide and a depth of 13 ft. at low water, with a maximum
depth of 25 ft., formed doubtless at the foot of ten miles of
rapids.
The ancient level of the lakes, judging by beach and
shore lines, must have been some 80 feet above the present
surface, giving to the old outlet about the same discharging
capacity as the Niagara river, below Buffalo.
This outlet led from the lake by two branches, one over
the site of Chicago via Mud lake and the Desplaines val¬
ley, the other over the Calumet region via Blue Island and
the **Sag;'* the two uniting in a common channel above
Lemont. Ihrough the northern valley was located the
Illinois and Michigan canal to Chicago, and through the
** Sag," was led the feeder from the Calumet to the Summit
level.
The map herewith shows the course of the old outlet and
branches from Lake Michigan to Lake Joliet. The north¬
ern branch is notably shorter, being some four miles less by
the most direct course, from the common point (the Sag)
to the present shore of Lake Michigan. The southern
channel is divided by an elevation called Lane's Island.
The Calumet canal, for the most direct course, would pass
south of Lane's Island, following the Little Calumet from
Blue Island to Riverdale and then(^e across by Lake Calu¬
met and Brown's mill to the Calumet river. A more indi¬
rect line would be along the old feeder and the windings
of the Calumet river.
The Chicago channel would extend up the Desplaines and
Mud lake valley to a junction with a branch of the Chicago
river, near the city limits, and thence by the river to the
lake. Other channels are feasible, as follows: North to
Bowmanville, south to the Calumet, or to the lake direct,
all as shown on the map.
m
The relative distance from the common point to the sev¬
eral lake termini, by each route, is given in the following
table;
Sag Junction to Lake Michigan.
Calumet or Sag Channel, Length in miles.
Calumet feeder and Calumet river 82
South of Lane's Isl. and by Calumet river 81
South of Lane's Isl.and by Calumet lake (Shortest line.) 26
Chicago Channel,
Mouth Chicago river by West Fork 23^
Mouth Chicago river by South Fork 25
Across South Side near 89th street 21J^
By Mud lake, terminating at mouth of Calumet 28
By Mud lake, north to Bowmanville cut-off 27J^
Both valleys have been examined (for original canal, by
surveys of Gen'l Wilson and Col. Macomb, and the north¬
ern one by the Drainage Commission—see historical brief)
and the rock sounded out. The profiles (see accompanying
map) show the rock on each line from the common point 17
miles toward the lake, beyond which rock may still con¬
tinue on the southern line. The "Sag" profile follows
the Calumet feeder; the line south of Lane's Isl., although
a mile shorter, information does not indicate to be other¬
wise more favorable. The channel as proposed in the Hurd
Bill—160 feet wide and 22 feet depth of water—would be
continuously in rock for the full 17 miles by the Sag route
and for only ten miles and a much less depth on the Chicago
route.
The excavation would be approximately as follows:
Distance, seventeen miles [ Chicago route | Calumet route
Earth, cubic yards.
Rock, cubic yards,
10,000,000
6,000,000
6,000,000
12,000,000
Total, cubic yards, | 16,000,000
18,000,000
Very material advantages to the Chicago line are due to
occupying the bed of the Desplaines, from which it is pro¬
posed to divert flood waters by the Bowmanville cut-off for
tanitary reasons, though their presence would not mate¬
rially impair the channel for navigation.
47
The rock lies so much higher in the Sag ** valley, that
for a channel of less depth the disproportion of rock is
greater—in other words, the cost of excavation will be rel¬
atively higher by this route for shallower channels, thus
making the absolute difference in cost for any depth nearly
constant.
A channel 160 ft. wide and 22 ft. deep to Lake Joliet
will carry three times the water of a channel of half the
depth and cost about 60 per cent, additional; and from the
common point lake ward for the 17 miles considered, the
cost of the 22 ft. channel will not greatly exceed that of the
11 ft. channel for the Calumet route.
Private enterprise has always provided dockage facilities
in advance of the needs of commerce at Chicago, and these
interests must be conserved by a more direct lake outlet,
some such one as is herein suggested. Perhaps all the great
interests may be served by the extension to the mouth of the
€aJumet.
From Lockport to Lake Joliet, from 50,000 to 60,000
actual horse power will be constantlj' available for manu¬
facturing purposes, depending on how the project is worked
out. This is nearly double the power available at extreme
low water at Minneapolis.
Memorandum,
General Wilson's assistant in charge of surveys, Mr. James
Worrall, C. E, reports as follows (Chf. Engrs, 1868, p. 460):
" The Calumet feeder route was examined and sounded under my
direction during the progress of this survey, and the necessity for
rock excavation developed by these soundings to an extent sufficient
to preclude the selection of that route for the enlarged canal. An
additional objection is found in the exceedingly crooked approach
to Blue Island from the lake by the Calumet river."
He says farther (p. 466):
•* The Calumet feeder was sounded with iron rods from its mouth
to the dam at Blue Island."
By the courtesy of Maj. T. H. Handbury.ln charge of this river and
harbor district, the Chicago Drainage Commission in the autumn of
1886, obtained a copy of Mr. Worrall's profile along the feeder, show¬
ing the character of material and depth to rock. They also ob¬
tained an original survey map for the feeder from the canal office at
Lockport. From these a profile was made, sufficient for the purposes
of preliminary estimate, from which the one presented is reduced.
The route was also inspected in some detail.
The profile from Chicago to Lake Joliet is from the surveys made
r.iidi'rthe direction oí the Drainage Commission,
Bpckfqxd
Cütntono
Anrenporto
Eock'ïsland *" ^ Pero
Awrai
MonigO^
a Salid
Inrftn
iQH&iqr
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gton
Sj
Feoil^'
OJ
Pekiü
Sonttie
l
BloSniiigtiim
HaTanna
Beardstow i
Sprlngfleld®
i
;atiar
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^Vandalia
o
IT. LOUlë]
TBEHiLnrOIS
WATERWAY.
XilKB MIOHMAV ^
*0 *M
Mmmirpi Bim.
ITorki vhoUy in the Stale cf
JBfnoie may he <(f greater benefit
to the Miseiesippi than their cod dtf
recUy applied, ^
A. Zet$e & Co. Engra., Chi,
lankakec
«£>
49
Appendix No. 5. (Map.)
The Illinois Waterway extends from Lake Michigan
across the Chicago divide and by the valleys of the Desplaines
and Illinois rivers to the Mississippi at Grafton, a distance
of 325 miles by the most available route. The following
table gives the distances and élévations, referred to Chicago
datum—extreme low water of Lake Michigan, 1847:
g g
O
M
OQ CD 5
o
tH W
^ TCt
^ 95 C
Remarks.
crp öo
95 O
? B
Water
Chi-
Datum.
λ CD <»
Lake Michigan..
0.00
0.000
4.7
H. W. 1838.
Lake Joliet
40.00
77.00
5 to 6
Head of Lake.
Kankakee River.
51.30
93 70
18 to 20
Morris
61.00
100.3
21
Bridge,n.W.1867
Marseilles
77.00
102.8
4 to 5
Dam.
Ottawa
84.5
132.1
26
Bridge,n W.1857
La Salle
100.3
146.6
28
{ Natural Low
{Water H.W.'32
Hennepin
115.8
148.7
25
H. W. 1858.
Peoria
161.4
151.3
21
5 Natural Low
{Water H.W.'58
Mouth of Illinois.
325.00
172.4
20
In. W. 1881.
Note.—Mean level of Lake Michigan, 1,65 ft. above Chi¬
cago Datum.
From Joliet to Marseilles are three deep pools joined by
reaches of rapid fall (Lake Joliet 53^ miles long and
described in Apdx. No. 3; Lake Du Page, over 3 miles
long with an average depth of 10 feet at low water, and
the Marseilles pool 12J^ miles long with an average depth
of 9 feet), and covering 21 out of 37 miles. An improve¬
ment over this stretch involves no serious difficulties.
From Marseilles to Utica, 17 miles, the stream has rapid
fall and is rock-bound in great part. This stretch wiU re¬
quire bold treatment and be the most expensive portion of
a comprehensive improvement, below Joliet.
Between Lake Joliet and La Salle it will be feasible to
realize from 35,000 to 45,000 actual horse power, depending
upon how the works are projected.
50
The character of the river and valley below La Salle,
has been already described (see Part I, Physical Condi¬
tions). Its most notable feature is Lake Peoria, 20 miles
long, averaging 2,000 ft. in width and 12 ft. in depth on nat¬
ural low water.. This depth will be notably increased by
a large water supply. From La Salle to Peoria, 61 miJes,
the depth averages over 10 ft. and less than 2,500,000 yards
of material require removal for a channel 300 ft. wide and
eight ft. deep. The proposed water supply (600,000 cubic
ft. per minute) would doubtless increase this to 14 ft. or
more, by maintaining a higher surface.
Below Peoria to the mouth, some 25,000,000 yards may
require removal to obtain the same channel for navigation.
Nature will be a powerful ally in creating this channel and
can be relied upon for its maintenance.
Owing to its gentle declivity and the character of its
bars and bed, the Illinois river is probably more suscepti¬
ble of improvement to a large capacity by additions to its
water supply aided by channel work than any other stream
in this country.
In obtaining the channel depth suggested for the river
below La Salle and which is equal to that of the Canadian
canals, now nearly completed, it would probably be wiser
and more economical to contemplate a flow of 1,000,000
cu. ft. per minute. The results would be more readily
obtained and more certain and the possibilities much
greater. Systematic channel treatment and a gradual
introduction of the volume would avoid any local compli¬
cation.
JVbfe.—In this and the preceding apndx., the maniiscript,
maps and data made under various U. S. Engrs., by the Drainage
Commission, and also private notes have been freely consulted
52
Appïjndix No. 6. {Map.)
The Lakes to the Atlantic. To unite the seaboard
with the lakes was the early ambition of American states¬
manship. This union has been the dominating factor in our
development, and is the controlling feature in commercial
movement to-day—is the one whose influence reaches to
remote sections as a regulator or cheap carrier.
Originally, the St. Lawrence furnished for navigation but
103^ ft., below Montreal, and about the same above (exclud¬
ing rapids) ; the Detroit river at the Lime Kilns, 13 ft. ; the
St. Clair Flats but 9)^ ft., and the St. Mary's river about
the same. Previous to 1841, no project for the passage of
vessels between the lakes and seaboard had been entered
upon. The Erie and Oswego canal enlargement was then
in progress, with locks 110x18x7 ft.; the Hudson had
been joined to the St- Lawrence through Lake Champlain; {a)
the Weiland canal had been completed (1833) with locks
100 x22 ft.; and the Lachine at Montreal (1825) with locks
100x20x43^ ft.
The Rideau canal was completed in 1832, with locks 134
x33x5 ft., extending from the Ottawa river at Ottawa to
Kingston, a fortified terminus on Lake Ontario; providing,
in connection with the Ottawa improvements, a route re¬
mote from American territory for the transportation of
military stores. As an extension of this route (1833) the
Trent valley improvements were carried toward Lake Huron
as an interior line to the upper lakes. (5)
After the union of the provinces in 1841, the five canals
between Montreal and Lake Erie were projected for all the
water then carried in the St. Lawrence and through the
lakes. The four St. Lawrence canals were completed at
various dates from 1843-50, with locks 200 x 45 x 9 ft. The
Weiland enlargement was completed in 1848, with locks
150x263^x9 ft., with another foot added in 1853. It is
noted elsewhere that the Illinois and Michigan was once a
proposed ship canal " of 10 ft. depth. The Sault Ste
Marie canal was built by the State of Michigan (1852-5,) for
12 ft., thus anticipating some future imurovements. (c)
53
After the confederation of all the provinces as the
** Dominion of Canada," in 1867, a government commission
recommended, in 1871, the enlargement of the St. Lawrence
system, with locks 270 ft. long, 45 ft. wide and 12 ft. on
miter sills. It will be noted that this depth is the same as
that of the Sault Ste Marie canal, and that the rivers St.
Mary and St. Clair, had been deepened (1858) to 12 ft. ; also
that in the same year (1871) the St. Clair Flats canal, with
a depth of 13 ft., the same as the rocky shoal of the Detroit
river, became available. In 1875, the project was changed
«0 as to enable 14 ft. to be readily obtained at a future time,
or all the depth available in the St. Lawrence without
extensive channel work.
Meantime, the United States entered upon improvements
to secure 16 ft. for lake navigation by deepening the
ohannel in the Detroit river, and St. Clair Flats canal (1874)
^nd constructing a new lock at the Sault (1881) and deep¬
ening the river below (1883). Scarcely had these projects
been completed before they were amended for a depth of
20 ft., now under way in the St. Mary's river, and at the
St. Clair Flats and nearly completed at the "Lime Kilns."
To secure more for the lakes will be enormously expensive.
Below Montreal, the St. Lawrence had been deepened to
15 ft. by 1852, to 20 ft. by 1869, to 22 ft. by 1878, to 25 ft.
by 1882, and work is continuing for 27J¿ to 30 ft. in a
channel of ample width. Up to 1882, the expenditure had
been ^2,587,826. The aggregate length of dredged channel
is about 40 miles, some portions of which are rock ledge.
Of the five canals of the St. Lawrence system, the La-
chine was completed in 1879 to a depth of 14 feet. The
Weiland was opened with a depth of 12 ft., in 1883, with
the terminal locks adapted to 14 ft. The channel of the St.
Lawrence at the Williamsburg canals was under improve-
ment for the use of up-stream chain cable towing, in place
•of a lull enlargement. Work had begun on the Cornwall
-and Beauharnois canals. The entire system was not pushed
to completion, as the resources of the Dominion were ab¬
sorbed in other enterprises. At the present writing, it is
54
understood that the full depth (14 ft.) in the Weiland is be¬
ing secured, and that the remaining works are under way.
The following table gives the elements of the five St,
Lawrence canals—locks 270 x 45 x 14 ft. :
CANAL.
LENGTH.
Welland
26M
Williamsburg
13
Cornwall
Beauharnois..
Lachine
UM
UM
8M
Total
71
LOCKAGE.
FT.
326M
SIM
48
44M
58SM
REMABKS.
Lockage variously given.
"Three short canals, cov¬
ering 28 miles of riv¬
er. River itself to
be improved.
Í
Lake and river 304 miles.
Lake Erie to Montreal, 375 miles. See Pronle.
The Erie and Oswego canals have held th«ir own in trans¬
portation to the seaboard, though the capacity (locks 110 x
18x7) has not been increased since the enlargement was
declared completed inl862. Since the Weiland enlargement
vessels passing down to Lake Ontario have favored Kings¬
ton, transferring their cargoes to barges for Montreal.
Many of the single locks on the Erie have been doubled
in length to permit the passage of a steam canal boat and
consort. A bill is now before the legislature to complete
this work, and to give to the canal a depth of nine feet.
The present canal boat carries 240 tons; and this will ena¬
ble a boat and consort to carry 600 to 700 tons, as against
1,500 to 2,000 tons by the St. Lawrence system, when com¬
pleted. The lockage is 656J^ ft.; the length 352 miles, or
495 miles to New York.
The port of Montreal is 120 miles nearer Lake Erie, and
140 miles less to upper lake points, but it is closed by ice an
average of 102 days each year, and New York is always
open. The upper lake vessel has always been too large
for the canals. Established traffic routes along lines of
domestic commerce are hard to change. Whether the
55
Erie, with the improvements now begun, will continue in
Buccessful competition, is most difficult to answer.
In 1862, it was proposed to enlarge one tier of locks on
the Erie to 220 x 26 ft., for the passage of gunboats, and in
connection therewith to construct an Illinois and Michigan
ship canal. It failed by a narrow vote in Congress, {d)
The Niagara ship canal, as a rival of the Welland, is an old
and favorite project and was reported upon iil 1868. (e) In
1874, as part of the northern transportation route to the
seaboard, the Oneida lake barge canal, with locks 185 x
29 X 9 ft., was projected from Oswego to Troy, a distance of
200 miles; the lockage was 609 ft. and the summit at Rome,
182 ft. above Lake Ontario. (/) For a great canal by this
route, the water supply has been in question. Recently
the State Engineer of New York suggested a canal to be fed
from Lake Erie (this is the original project) with locks 450
ft. long, 60 ft. wide and 18 ft. deep, {ff) A route by Lake
Ontario does not differ materi dly in distance, but has 364
ft. increase of lockage.
It is proposed to extend the St. Lawrence system by a
very favorable route to Lake Champlain and the Hudson.
The Caughnawaga canal, 323^ miles lung with 29 ft. of
lockage, will join the ' St. Lawrence above the Lachine
rapids with the River Richelieu at St. Johns, whence 133
miles by river and lake reaches Whitehall. This gives access
to New England points. Thence to the Hudson at Troy
is 64 miles by canal and slackwater, with 172 ft. of lock¬
age and a summit of 39 ft. above Lake Champlain. The
distance to New York would be 371 miles farther than to
Montreal, (f)
From the standpoint of Dominion nationality and as as¬
suring commercial control of the three upper lakes, and a
like strategic advantage, the Ottawa ship canal route from
the St. Lawrence at Montreal via the Ottawa across the divide
to Lake Nipissing and Georgian Bay, is pre-eminently the
Canadian route, (h) Remote from American territory, it
is the shortest feasible line, being 270 miles less from
Superior, Michigan and Huron to tide-water than by the St.
56
Lawrerree route. It presents remarkable constructive ad¬
vantages, having but 29J¿ miles of canal in 431 miles and
a summit 77 ft. above Lake Huron with an ample water
supply. (Í)
The practicable projects for waterways then reduce to
three—the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence both terminating
at Montreal, and th^ Hadson term'nating at New York—
any or all available for both ports by an important cross Iin€
from the St. Lawrence via Lake Champlain to the Hudson.
The distance from Chicago to each terminus by each of the
lines is given in the following table:
Route. I New York. | Montreal. | Remark.
The distances
Ottawa
1,367
991
have been var¬
St. Lawrence....
1,637
1,261
iously stated
Hudson
1,402
1,500
by different
authorities.
Each of the Canadian lines have distinctive advantages—
advantages too great for a commercial rival. The Erie ship
canal would offset the St. Lawrence, but in addition a ship
canal from the head of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, saving
about 350 miles, would be required to offset the Ottawa
route. Shall the commercial veins of a great country feed
the arteries of an outlying nation—to gather toll of our
prosperity as did the little commercial countries of Europe
in the middle ages and even in recent times?
(a) This route is of present importance. By the Ottawa, St.
Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, the Chambly canal, Lake Champ-
lain and the Champlain canal, a great lumber traffic is carried on
with New England and Hudson river points.
(&) This project, as a barge canal, has been reviveii. The im¬
provement would be largely by lake and slack water, about 200 miles
long, with a summit 248}^ feet above Lake Huron. The distance
saved is less than by more available lines, and its character is such
as to make it difficult to develop great capacity for through traffic.
(c) Reports of the State Engr. of New York for 1875, '76 and '79;
Dominion Report, 1876, 1880 and 1882; Chf. Engr. U. S. A. of various
dates; also, documents noted elsewhere; also Rept. Comptroller of
New York, 1885.
(d) "Enlargement of the Canals for National Purposes," Al¬
bany, 1863.
(e) Ex, Doc No. 197, H. R. 40th Cong. 2d Ses.
(/) ( hf. Engrs U. S. A., 1875, II, 534 et seq.
57
lg) Trans. Am. Soc. C. E., 1885, p. 37 et seq.
(h) The Huron and Ontario ship canal has been strongly
nrged. The route is from Georgian Bay via Lake Simcoe to Lake
Ontario near Toronto, 100 miles, of which sixty would be canal.
The summit level would be I.ake Simcoe, 130 feet above Lake
Huron, and the summit cut would be ten miles long with a
maximum depth of 186 feet above water line; two other cut¬
tings of magnitude occur. The project of 1869 contemplated locks
265 X 55 X 13 feet. The saving in distance to the seaboard would be
about 220 miles. Although a company was organized and the matter
vigorously agitated, it is presumed that the formidable nature of the
undertaking has deterred its execution, especially since the Weiland
enlargement has been entered upon by the Dominion. (See " Huron
and Ontario Ship Canal," Toronto, 1869.)
(Í) The locks proposed were 250x45x12, Report of T. C.
■Clarke, 186 ).
Note. The cost of the Si. Lawrence system from Lake Erie to
Montreal, with estimates for completion is in round numbers 354,-
000,000.
The Erie canal cost the State of New York for construction up to
1S76, 349 160,986,93. If interest on loans during construction is added,
the amount is 359.289.880.94.
There was expended on the entire canal system up to 1873,381,
577,993. Interest on loans will raise this to over 3100,000,000.
the creat
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59
A.PPENDIX No. 7. [Map.)
The Great Circle Waterway involves the ultimate
idea of a waterway for vessels as large as may ever float the
lakes, from the Hudson via the lakes to the Gulf and even
across the Isthmus to the Pacific, thus joining the principal
marts of the country on the Atlantic, the Gulf and the Pa¬
cific, and the lakes and the interior. It would link in a
harmonious whole, the several detached systems. It would
loosen the ice-bound fleet for commerce in favoring climes.
The admitted regulative influence of waterways would be
indefinitely multiplied and new traffic created. The 20,-
000,000 tons annually between Huron and Erie (six times
that of the railways crossing the Detroit and St. Clair rivers)-
would be increased manv-fold.
The distances and elevations along this route are as fol-
f ows :
Sandy Hook
New York
Albany
Buffalo
Chicago
Illinois river....
Missouri river...
St. Louis
Cairo
Memphis
Arkansas river..
Vicksburg
Red river
New Orleans....
Gulf
Distance.
Distance
Chicago.
Elevation.
00
1,427
0.00
25
1,402
0.00
168
1,259
4.84
520
907
572.86
1,427
00
581.28
1,752
325
407.23
1,776
349
1,792
365
380.03
1,989
562
270.65
2,219
792
2,431
964
2,588
1,161
45.85
2,753
1,326
2,954
1,527
3,061
1,634
1.07
Remarks.
Mean tide..
Mean tide.
Lake Erie.
Lake Michigan;
Mouth, L. W.
Mouth.
Low water.
Low water.
Low water.
Mean tide.
JVbie.—Distances, see Rept. State Engr. New York for 1879^.
Miss. Riv. Com. Charts and Reports ofGen'l Wilson, Maj. Benyaurd
and Maj, Lydecker; elevations from precise leveling of Lake Survey,
and Miss. River. Com.
The principal tributaries to this trunk are as foil ows i.
60
Lakes. Miles.
Lake Superior, (elevation 601.78 ft.), 459
Green Bay 90
Georgian Bay 125
Saginaw Bay 75
Lake Ontario (246.61 ft.) and .St. Lawrence.... 375
Lake Champlain (100.87 ft.) and Canal 185
1300
Rivehs. Miles.
Upper Mississippi to St. Paul 657
Missouri to Ft. Benton 2382
Ohio to Pittsburg 967
Cumberland to Nashville. 192
Tennessee to Chattanooga 480
Arkansas, Apx 322
Eed, Apx 300
5300
Tributary to these arteries are probably an equal mileage
of useful auxiliaries.
The census of 1880 gives 244 cities of over 10,000 popu¬
lation. Of these the writer has identified 233 on the maps,
with a population of 11,177,000.
The'following table shows the distribution of this popu¬
lation with respect to the trunk waterway.
Designation.
No. of Cities.
Population.
Per Cent.
Sandy Hook to Gulf...
43
4,504,000
40
Return by coast
17
1,809,000
16K
Total, great circle
60
6,313,000
56H
Miss, tributaries (See
list
above)........ ......
• • • •
33
1,263,000
11
Remaining Atlantic
and
Gu]f coast
25
1,362,000
12
Pacific coast
5
289,000
Inland
110
2.023,000
18
Total
233
11,177,000
100
Waterways are peculiarly adapted to bulk traffic. The
cities are marketing and distributing points and if their
61
population is an index to commercial movement, the tabla¬
is significant.
Forty per cent, of this population lies on the route from
Sandy fíook to the Gulf, and the completed circuit by the
coast aggregates 563^. per cent. Including the great trib¬
utaries and the remaining coast, 80 per cent, is served by
waterways of magnitude. The remaining cities of the
country are small, some 20 per cent, of the city population
and averaging only 20,000 inhabitants each. Of these still
about one-half are on minor navigable channels.
From this point of view, the significance of a trunk which
will serve so large a proportion of the population, which
will unite the water systems of the whole country, and
which is adapted to cargo and long distance traffic, is tre¬
mendous. It is peculiarly fortunate that Dame nature
located the navigable waters alongside the big towns.
Note.—The idea of a great circle waterway of the first magni¬
tude was broached by the writer in some remarks before the Com¬
mercial Club in December, 1886: and farther expanded in " The Fu¬
ture of Chicago," a reprint from the Daily News of Jan. 1, 1887 (pre¬
pared by Dr. F. W. Reilly and the writer); and in a paper before the
Academy of Sciences, Feb. 8,1887. Hon. Jehu Baker, Belleville, 111.,
made a speech on the general idea in connection with an isthmu»
orouing, before the Memphis convention, Oct. 21,1887.
62
Appendix No. 8.—Lake Level Effects.
Lakes Michigan and Huron are so connected by the Straits
of Mackinaw as practically to constitute one lake. Lake
Superior is at a higher elevation, or is independent except
so far as it is tributary to lakes Huron and Michigan. The
waters of the three lakes drain through the straits called
the St. Clair and Detroit rivers, some 85 miles long and
with slight fall to Lake Erie. Whatever water is taken
from Lake Michigan by the proposed Chicago outlet will
-diminish by that amount the quantity flowing out by the,
St. Clair river. What will be the effect on the normal ele¬
vation of the lakes?
The data for a complete discussion is insufficient. It is
found principally in the reports of the Lake Survey (Chf.
Engrs,, 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1882). The following table
is compiled from these sources, and gives the mean discharge
of the several connecting rivers for some months of 1868
when the lakes generally were about one-half foot below
their mean levels;
Lake.
Elevation
above
Mean Tide.
Total
Basin
sq. miles.
LakeSur-
face.
sq. miles.
Ou, ft. per sec. 1868.
Rain¬
fall.
Lake
Evapora¬
tion.
Dis-
ch'rge
Superior.....
Huron and Mich.
Erie
601.78
681.28
572.86
246.61
90,505
121,941
40,298
31.553
38,875
50,400
10,000
7,220
187.386
262964
96654
75692
34,495
66.754
13,870
10,568
80,870
216,435
235.578
272.095
Ontario
JVbie.—Original table of lake surface included lakes on water¬
shed, omitted above. The evaporation is based on actual observa¬
tion.
The data indicate large variations in discharge from ef¬
fects of winds and other causes, but give little clue as to
the quantities at extreme low water and extreme high
water. Extreme low water is probably 15 to 20 per cent,
less; extreme high water 30 to 40 per cent, more, and mean
water 7 to 10 per cent. more. These extremes are reached
only in a long series of years, giving changes of level on
the three lakes of 8 to 43^ ft. The ordinary annual fluctua¬
tion is 13^ to 2 feet with probable variations in discharge
of 10 to 15 per cent, from the annual mean.
63
For present purposes assume the discharge approximately
a,s above, and the Chicago outlet opened for 10,000 ft. per
second. This would be 43^ per cent., leaving 95per
cent, to go down the St. Clair after the level is adjusted
to the new conditions; the ultimate lowering will be
just the amount required to give the St. Clair river a ca¬
pacity for 10,000 cu. ft. less water.
It is a fundamental principle in hydraulics that in any
stream the capacity for discharge will increase faster than
the mean depth, or, for a given change in discharge, the
change in mean depth will be less. If the stream is of
uniform prism and unchanging grade, long established
formulae may be applied, viz.; that the new mean depth
is the two-thirds power of the new discharge. The new
discharge being 953^ per cent, gives the new mean depth
at 97 per cent—a diminution of three per cent.
The cliannel is, however, irregular, of varying width
and cross-section. The experience on western rivers indi-
<îates that it will be more correct to assume that the new
mean depth will be the one-half power of the new discharge
—or a diminution of the mean depth of 23^ per cent. In the
-case, however, of the St. Clair river, which is not a stream
of free discharge, in the proper sense, and which has an
unusual regimen, it is probable that the truth will be more
nearly represented by the one-third power, giving for a
diminution of 43^ per cent, in discharge, a diminution of
13^ per cent, in mean depth.
The mean depth in this case is that for the whole river
from Lake Huron to the head of the passes. What length
of river is involved in the discussion we will not now con¬
sider. This mean depth is the average area of the cross-
section of the stream divided by its average width, and, for
the St. Clair river, as judged from the published charts, will
be between 20 and 24 ft.—say 22 ft. This would give a
change per ct.) of 0.33 ft., or 4 inches. The matter
could be perhaps better discussed from the standpoint of
what are known as discharge curves, but the methods are
known only to a few specialists in river hydraulics.
64
To approach the matter comprehensively would require
observations taken with the special view of ascertaining the
discbarge at different stages of the lake under varying con¬
ditions. So far as the observations can be used in a direct
determination, they appear to indicate that the change of
level for a difference of 10,000 cu. ft. per second will be
somewhere between 0.2 ft. and 0.4 ft.—say one foot for
30,000 to 40,000 cu. ft. per second.
Some considerations may be presented, as showing how
difficult it may be to detect or value any effects produced.
Considering the combined area of Lakes Huron and Mich¬
igan as a reservoir (50,400 sq. miles), one foot of water
would represent a discharge of 10,000 cu. ft. per second for
4.18 years; or 2.87 inches that for one year. One foot of
water on Lake Superior would represent this volume for
3.43 years; or 3.5 inches that for one year.
The extreme variation in the three lakes, for a series of
years, is 3 to 4J^ ft., and the annual variation from low to
high water is 1to 2 ft. There are also daily and periodic
variations from wind, change of barometer and other causes,
frequently of a foot or more. The surface of the lake is
never constant, and can only be determined by observations
continued over a period of time.
It is ascertained that changes in wind produce large vari¬
ations in the discharge through the St. Clair river. The
long series of meteorological observations at many stations
about the lakes showed that there were great variations in
rainfall, and that it was not uniformly distributed over the
basin, being sometimes in excess in the upper lakes and de¬
ficient in the others, and sometimes the reverse.
These observations also show great variations from year
to year in the evaporation.
The evaporation on Lakes Huron and Michigan (see table)
for the year 1868, as reported, would be about 19 inches,
and as reported for 1867 (88,589 ft. per sec.) would be some
253^ inches, a difference for these two years alone, of more
than enough to supply the Chicago channel for two years.
65
The difference on Lake Superior for these two years was
more than a year's supply.
On account of the many conditions involved, the great
changes in lake level from complex causes, the variations in
meteorological conditions—rainfall, winds, evaporation,
vegetable growth, etc.—which it is impracticable to value
closely, it is doubtful if long continued observations for
lake elevation would detect a change and assign its amount.
In other words, the abstraction of 10,000 cu. ft. per second,
so far as its effects are concerned, is not' a matter of
material moment, and might never be perceived.
An interesting question arises as to the amount that may
be abstracted without raising broad questions of perhaps an
international character. If the records for the last thirty
years are studied, it will be found that Lake Erie begins to
rise first in the spring, followed by lakes Michigan and
Huron, and later by Lake Superior, which reaches high
water in August or September. When 200,000 cu. ft. per
second passes the St. Clair river, the lake is still nearly one
foot above low water. Certainly any amount of water
drawn from the lakes without impairing the natural eleva¬
tions below this one foot would not be injurious to naviga¬
tion, and would reduce high water and its destructive
tendencies.
Suppose that works to regulate the outflow of Lake Supe¬
rior be placed at the Sault rapids, a matter of no great diffi¬
culty and of comparatively small cost. While supplying a
certain minimum quantity to the St. Mary's river, (a) the
high water can be retained until later in the season, or in
place of coming in on top of the high water of lakes Huron
and Michigan, it may come in after they have run out.
This may probably be done without injury to Lake Superior
interests.
If proper observations for discharge at various stages of
the lake existed, it would be possible, from the thirty years'
records of stage on all the lakes, to deduce closely enough
for all practicable purposes the regulative influence which
could be attained by controlling the outflow of Lake Supe-
66
rior. It is very probable that such a study would show the
feasibility of diverting not less than 30,000 cu. ft. per. sec, to
the Mississippi, reducing the high water fluctuations in all
the lakes below S upe rior, and without impairing—perhaps,
on the contrary, improving—their levels for navigation. It
is virtually to conserve the surplus, above that required for
a moderate stage of water. How far such regulation may
be justified with a view to a large volume of water to the
Mississippi, is presented in the next appendix.
As an engineering question, it is quite possible to use the
lakes as reservoirs to the highest degree desirable, or to
even increase their discharge by diverting thereto streams
which now flow to western rivers. This is not now a ques¬
tion for practical consideration.
(a) The fall in the St. Mary's river from the rapids to Lake
H uron, is hut two feet, and if it were desirable to, at times, entirely
arrest the flow, it is practicable to conform the improvements to this
condition.
67
Appendix ISTo. 9.
Reservoirs in Aid op River Improvement, were
among the first proposition of Chas. Eilet for the im¬
provement of the Ohio river, as long ago as 1849. The ab¬
sence of a sufficient number of proper reservoir sites made
the scheme seem impracticable. The upper Mississippi,
more than any of the other great basins, furnishes at its
headvraters and those of its northern tributaries, available
sites for the impounding of sufficient water to maintain a
flow at least double that of extreme low water from St.
Paul to the Illinois, while at the same time improving
the tributaries. In addition there may be turned in at the
mouth of the Illinois, a constant supply of large amount
from the great lakes, and by aid of the combined volumes
there may be effected a far greater improvement of the
Mississippi southward than hitherto contemplated, or than
would otherwise be possible.
In 1870, Gen. G. K. Warren reports upon reservoirs upon
the Mississippi, above the Falls of St. Anthony, and in sub¬
sequent reports to date, investigation has been extended to
the St. Croix, Chippewa, Wisconsin and other tributaries to
and including the Rock river. The matter is presented in
great detail, but the conclusions as to the measure of effect
to be realized in the Mississippi are not as tangible as could
be wished. The construction of the first of the series of res¬
ervoirs was begun in 1880, and four out of seven on the head¬
waters of the Mississippi have been completed and put in
operation for three low water seasons with good results,
though but a fraction of that expected from the completion
the entire system of 41 reservoirs, as proposed on the
several headwaters.
Steamboats that at low water had not before gone above
Hastings have run through to St. Paul without interrup¬
tion, although the past three years have been of unusual
drought. In 1886, reservoirs added to the volume passing
St. Paul from 24 to 45 per cent, for 170 days, and during
August and September of 1887, they added 33 per cent, and
probably more in October and Hovember.
68
Considered as a method of river improvement per se^.
as against that by channel correction on' the natural water
supply, perference has been given the latter by high author¬
ity. The ground of this preference seems to rest in the fact>
familiar to all river experts, that in places of abnormal width,,
the low water channel is obliterated by high water and not
infrequently engorged so as to raise the crest of the bars
quite above low water plane; through such places the falling
stage should cut a channel—a thing not always done—and
this operation, it is assumed, will not be greatly aided by
such increments as can be made at such times; in fact, that
the low water regimen is largely determined by the condi¬
tions attending the falling stage, and that such localities
must be corrected in harmony with those portions of the-
stream where the desired depths are persistent.
All this is undoubtedly true, but not the whole truth. It
certainly will be conceded, that could the high and low
water volumes be brought within any near approach to
each other that the tendency to change would be compara¬
tively slight and the channel take on a character of per¬
manence and uniformity, quite impossible under different
conditions. By whatever amount the low water volume
may be increased, in some ratio will the strength and per¬
sistence of the low water regimen be increased and the pos¬
sibility of obliteration by high water diminished. If the low
water volume may be doubled, or the ratio between that and
high water halved, it is believed that an ameliorative tend¬
ency is inaugurated of far greater moment than it has been
usual to assume. It would seem then improper to regard
these two methods as distinctive plans of improvement
rather than as integral factors in a comprehensive treatment.
Since the subject was presented in detail, observations
for the discharge of the Mississippi at several localities,
from St. Paul to the Gulf, have been made. The obser¬
vations at each point have usually continued throughout
an entire year and give the discharges of the stream at
all stages, from low water to flood. From them we may
'69
infer the volume corresponding to a change of one foot in
•stage at or near low water.
The following table gives the places at which a full
•series of discharge measurements have been made; the low
water volume below which the river rarely goes, and the
volume per second corresponding to a change in one foot on
the gauge; at ornear low water;
Place.
St. Paul,
Prescott
Winona
•Clayton
Hannibal
■Graiton
St. Louis......
Gray's Pi
Columbus....
¡Fulton
Memphis
Helena
Hay's L'nd'g
Red R'r L'nd'g
DLtance
Miles,
Volume
Low Water.
Vol. for one
foot on
Gauge
Remarks.
657
7,000
««—M.
To Min'p's 16 mil's
628
10,100
3,800
Mouth St. Croix R.
532
14,0.0
6,900
Below ChippewaR.
422
20 500
7,950
Below Wisco'sin R.
107
31 000
12,400
000
33,000
11,100
Mouth Illinois R.
40
60 000
10,500
Below Missouri R.
——
62,000
11,500
256
130.000
22,000
Bei^w Ohio R.
412
131,000
21,500
467
132,000
21,1 iOO
543
133.000
19.500
788
144,000
18,500
Below Arkansas R.
1000
15 ',000
17.000
Below Red River
Note. The data for the above, and the following tables will be found
principally in the reports of the Miss. Riv. Com. and the Chf. Engrs.
U. S. A. In some instances, manuscript no es and diagrams have
been consulted. Lower waters are rare and may be regarded as
..abnormal
So many are the limitations, that no precise statement can
be made as to the effect of any given cause on an alluvial
«tream. In a general way, it may be stated that if the bars
were crystallized, an additional depth of one foot for naviga¬
tion would be had for the increments of volume given in
"the table, with possible exceptions in places of great width.
As a matter of fact, the bars are mobile, and the amelio¬
rative effect of a large and uniform low water volume will,
•doubtless, be a deepening of the channel, and a less rise ot
the surface, than the observations on rising and falling
•stages of the present river indicate. This would produce a
better result ; for, if we could suppose the effect to be en¬
tirely one of deepening, rather than a raising of the surface,
the increased effect would be not less than 50 per cent.
The natural low water volume supplies wastes from evap-
ïoration and other causes, so that the increment is practical-
70
ly undimirished as it goes down the stream. However
skeptical as to the results of reservoir action, it is hard to
escape the logic of the gauge equivalents.
The upper Mississippi reservoirs simply impound high
water volume, or diminish rather than increase high water^
Even if they did not, the increment to high water would be-
relatively very small, and we may be sure that it will bo
more than counterbalanced by a better channel for dis¬
charge.
The reservoir system on the upper Mississippi proposes to-
introduce the following low water increments. The least
effect to be expected is added.
Part of River.
Natural
Bar Depths,
feet.
, Reservoir
Increment.
Increased
Depths,
feet.
Remarks-
St. Paul to St. Croix.
6,400
8.0
Est'm'd^
St. Croix to Chippewa.
1.5
10,374
'2.7
Chippewa to Wisconsin
)
13.271
1.9
Wisconsin to Rock.
15 355
1.9
Rock to Des Moines.
r 2
1.5
Est'm'd.
Des Moines to Illinois.
Í
ic
1.2
The system proposed is 41 reservoirs on the headwaters of
the Mississippi, St. Croix, Chippewa and Wisconsin, to be
operated during low water, and to cost some $2,000,000,.
exclusive of land damages. The surveys thus far made,
indicate the feasibility of adding some 10,000 cu. ft. addi¬
tional, and there can be little doubt of the practicability of
doubling the low water volume of the river, throughout,,
ànd, at the same time, highly improving the tributaries bjr
maintaining therein a constant minimum volume. Such an
improvement for the reservoir tributaries now proposed for
development would be as follows:
^Mississippi, St. Kaul to Grand Rapids 350
St. Croix to Taylor's Falls... 5S'
Chippewa to Eau Claire 57
Wisconsin to Portage 112*
Total miles 572:
This nearly equals in length the main stream, a* dif the
development of waterways in the upper Mississippi basin
is ever as comprehensive as that executed and under way in
71
France, several times this tributary length will be some
time improved.
Suppose an increment throughout the stream equal to the
low water discharge (practically it would be more on the
upper reaches); the gauge equivalents would indicate an
effect of not less than 2)4 to 3 ft. If the present project
for 6 ft. by channel works alone on the natural supply is
practicable, certainly with the two in conjunction 8 to 9
ft. or more may be realized.
With such depths, the river would be navigable for boats of
two to three times the capacity of those adapted to 6 ft. as
projected. It now pays to run boats of 5 ft. holds on pres¬
ent depths, considerable improvements having been effected
by channel work, and it should be some time feasible for
the largest boats now plying from New Orleans to St.
Louis, with a carrying capacity of 2,000 tons, to reach St.
Paul throughout the season.
The data in regard to the Illinois has been partially pre¬
sented elsewhere. It is too meager for comprehensive
analysis. This tributary to its source in Lake Michigan,
will add 825 miles to the Mississippi system..
In that portion of the stream from Lake Joliet to Utica, 4
to 6 ft. will be added to low water depths by an increment
of 10,000 eu. ft. per second. Below La Salle, the data in¬
dicate results as follows:
Natural
Low water
Volume for
bar depth
volume
one foot
Remarks
La Salle
o
700
700
The volumes
to
£4
to
to
are approxi¬
Peoria Lake
1000
1000
mate; they are
Peoria
1200
1000
equivalent to
to
to
to
to
an aver'ge from
Sangamon R.
3
1500
1500
the first five
Sangamon
feet oí gauge.
to
8
Less than
2000
Mouth
2000
Note.—The bar depths have been generally dredged for four feet.
It is safe to say that 10,000 cu. ft. per second, as proposed,
would give a good seven feet throughout the stream on the
natural bars. The amount of channel work required to
secure ten feet, would not be material.
72
In its natural condition, the river would probably be bank
full from La Salle to Henry with 15,000 to 20,000 cu. ft. per
second. In time, however, the stream could be made to
take a larg'er volume by comprehensive treatment, and
without raising flood complications.
The increment to the Mississippi from the completion
of the reservoir system now proposed for the upper Mis¬
sissippi, and the carrying out of the Chicago project, would
be 25,000 cu. ft. per second delivered at Grafton.
This would add to the stage of water as follows:
Part of River.
25,000
Increas'd
Depth.
6 .^000
Increas'd
Depth.
Remarks.
Illinois to Ohio
2.3
5.5
See table of vol¬
Ohio to Arkansas...
1.2
2.9
ume equivalent to
Arkansas to Red
1.4
8.3
one foot on gauge.
If the project were carried out with a view to securing
30,000 ft. from the upper Mississippi, and 30,000 ft. from
the lakes, the indications would be as in second column.
Whether these results are important or not will appear
from the following considerations: In 1875, Maj. Suter
(now Lieut. Col.) reported 43 places below Cairo that were
liable to have less than ten 10 ft., 22 places less than 7 ft. and
13 places less than 5 ft. From Cairo to St. Louis less mini¬
mum depths were liable to occur. The present project
contemplates ten feet below Cairo, eight feet from Cairo to
St. Louis with ten officially suggested, and six feet from
St. Louis to Grafton. It is the peculiar merits of a
reservoir supply that it aids most in the upper
reaches of a river where the natural depths are least, thus
making a uniform depth by channel works more readily
obtainable. If it is feasible to obtain the depths projected
under present conditions, then certainly it should be feasi¬
ble to obtain 13 to 15 ft. at extreme low water from Grafton
southward by the aid of an incrementbot 60,000 cu. ft. or a
depth as great as the Canadian canals. This means that
boats of deeper draft still will navigate the river when the
stage of water is higher.
In obtaining any considerable depth for the lower Missis-
73
'sippi, a portion of the money can be most judiciously applied
to increasing the low water flow. This has the merit of
benefits in some proportion to the expenditure on every bar
in the river and of adding an extensive mileage of naviga¬
ble tributaries without additional cost. It is also in har¬
mony with conditions promotive of a uniform channel.
74
Appendix No. 10.
The Influence op Depth on Speed, in contracted
channels, assumes great importance in view of the general
introduction of steam navigation. The old formulae were
based on the area of cross-section or prism, as compared to
an unlimited expanse, and did not consider the influence of
depth per se^ a matter of less importance in towing than
in steam propulsion, at higher speeds. The canals recently
constructed for steam craft are generally short connecting
links between large bodies of navigable waters in which the
passage is but an incident of the voyage, and any capacity
that would secure transit has been a great relief to com¬
merce.
The recent experiments have not been systematic or
of a character to fully solve the problem, and it is not pro¬
posed to burden the non-professional reader with an analyt¬
ical discussion. Some general propositions will be advanced
which will appeal to all familiar with steam navigation.
The propulsion of a boat is due to the reaction of the col¬
umn of water driven backward. This water is supplied from
the direction of least resistance, viz., from below. In other
words, the screw or paddle in an expanse is a kind of pump,
drawing water up to send it aft, the water from all side»
flowing in to restore the level. As a consequence, boats
in shallow water settle down at the stern (" squat " is the
vernacular) and labor and steer badly, the immediate sup¬
ply from beneath being pumped out and coming by racing
along the sides or laterally.
Some years ago, experiments were made with the twin
hull steamer, "Bessemer" with a paddle between, designed
for use in the channel ferry, from Dover to Calais. The
boat was moored in the Dover dock and the machinery put
in motion, when it was found that, though throwing a pow¬
erful stream aft, the chips floating around between the hulls
forward were not disturbed; iu 'other words, the supply to
75
the wheel came from beneath. If the hull had been made
continuous in front of the wheel, the effect would not have
been diminished, Nearly all ferry boats on western rivers-
have "center wheels," a full hull forward and a raceway
aft, and no one has discovered that this method of applying^
power is not economical, as would certainly be the case if
the direct supply ta the wheel did not normally come from
below. Center wheel boats were used for gunboats during
the Civil War, for better protection to the paddle wheels,,
and perhaps the most economical craft on western rivers i&
the stern wheel paddle boat. This fact by itself makes
depth of peculiar value for steam navigation.
J. Scott Russel (Naval Architecture, Chapters XXXI and
XXXII) has discussed at length the increased resistance
due to what may be described as cramping the action of dis¬
placement. A carrier wave is generated, the speed (conse¬
quently the height) of which is determined by the depth;
the height is also modified by width of channel. The head
accumulation due to this is complemented by a depression
in the wake of the vessel, and the difference in head at bow
and stern generates a backward current, thus increasing
skin friction. These several elements combine and, in shal¬
low channels, when the speed approaches that of the wave,
the resistances are enormously multiplied, or high speed be¬
comes impracticable. For these reasons alone, the value of
depth for steam navigation at speeds greatly in excess of
old rates, becomes most important.
The writer has frequently noted the remarkable change'
in speed and in the handling of boats in passing from a
deep pool over the crest of a bar, the sensation at times be¬
ing most marked, as in the application of air brakes to a
train. One of the stories of the river is how a Vicksburg-^
New Orleans pilot (the river is here deep), when in the Ohio
river for the first time at low water, chided the engineer
for slowing his engines on every crossing from pool to pool,
and finally deserted his post in disgust. The tendency of a
boat to hunt the channel or feel for deep water, is also ncb-
ticeable.
76
The report of tbe board for tbe improvement of tbe lUi-
fiois river (Gen'l Wilson and Wm. Gooding, Cbf. Engrs.,
1868, p. 447), says:
" It is a well known fact that vessels of every class are propelled
at ranch greater speed and economy in deep than is possible in
-shallow water."
Capt. A. Mackenzie (now Major,) says in tbe report of
the Miss. Riv. Com. (Jan., 1881, p. 16):
•' A boat drawing 4 ft. to run and handle well should have at least
'6 ft. and her speed will be considerably increased on a depth of 8 ft."
" The large side-wheel boats run during the greater part of the
s:ason, but during low water do not go up higher than La Crosse.
"They could always reach Hastings as well as La Crosse, but between
these points the crossings are so numerous and deep pools so short
that the river is, as they term it, very ' slow.' "
Mr. E. L. Corthell,(Trs. Am. See. C. E., June, 1885, p.
4 and 9,) states:
" On journeys in a steam launch, in an Indian canal 40 feet wide,
near Rangoon, where the depth was slight, the launch could not
make over 1 to 2 miles per hour, l u in a ereater depth 5 miles per
tiour." On authority of Robert Gordon, C. E.
" The speed of the steam canal boat, ranniag time, is five miles per
hour on the Hudson river, and 2.1 miles on the Erie canal."
Tbe writer made tbe following statement before a com-
^mittee of tbe General Assembly of Illinois (Testimony taken
by Special Joint Committee, April, 1887, p. 17).
" Supt. Leigh ton of the Illinois and Michigan canal, stated to the
writer in November last, that with the canal five feet above city da¬
tum (10 ft. water), boats would make the trip in two hours less time
<that is 10 hours in place of 12) than with a stage of water two and a
half feet above city datum. This simply means that against a cur¬
rent 14 per cent. greater, the boat can make the same distance in 83
per cent, of the time, an increase in boat effect of 37 per cent. So we
•conclude that depth is valuable, and that it practically enables us to
tolerate a higher current. In the design of future canals for steam
navigation, when this question is fully investigated, I am persuaded
that a depth of one and a half times the draft of boats will be found
economical and that we can afford to sacrifice width, if necessary, to
attain it."
It was also stated tbat in addition to its navigable merits,
a deep channel is less variable in capacity from tbe effects
of lake fluctuations, ice and floods.
77
In the Suez canal (see Appendix No. B) vessels are limit¬
ed to a speed of about six miles, and this has been attained
by vessels of the IJ. S. Navy. The Tennessee, drawing 223^
ft. aft, passed through at the rate of 6.3 miles per hour,
(See " Maritime Canal of Suez," Navy Dept., Washington,-
1884.)
On the St. Clair and Detroit rivers, the velocity of the-
current is 23^ to 8 miles per hour, at Port Huron from 5 to
7 miles, and sometimes 5 at Stony Island. (Chf. Engrs.,
1874, p. 589.) These currents are navigated with facility
by long tows, sometimes one-half mile, which even pass the
narrow and submerged rock cut at the " Lime Kilns."
Boats make their up stream trips at high water in practi¬
cally the same time on the lower Mississippi as at other
times, although the current is increased two to three times,,
the depth under the keel being compensatory.
It may be concluded, then, that any channel proposed
across the Chicago "divide" to carry 600,000 cu. ft. per
minute at two miles per hour, will be readily navigable and
greatly superior for any purpose to a shallow channel as
hitherto projected for navigation or that may be projected
in harmony with the last government project (1884) from
Joliet to La Salle.
As a matter of economy in cost, for a given capacity
across the Chicago " divide," depth is better than great
width or high grade, the best combination of these factors
producing also the most available channel for navigation.
In fact, for boats of fair power, and within practical limits,
to double the depth will more than compensate for any
current which it will be desirable to provide for; in other
words, for a boat running within one or two feet of the
bottom, a canal of dead water will be less readily navigated
than one of twice the depth with a current of two or three
miles per hour.
78
âppi:ndix No. 11.—Economical Channel Capacity
for Commerce.
" Lake craft from Chicago or Milwaukee to Buffalo or Erie, re¬
ceive from one-third to one-fourth the through rate by lake and rail
to the seaboard ; or the lake rate per ton mile ^'s one-fourth to one-
sixth the rail rate. If these rates may be assumed to represent rela¬
tive cost of transportation, then it is simply a question of how far
the size of boats may be reduced how much their speed shall be
lessened or what ditticulties of navigation are, to be contended with,
to bring the cost of water carriage up to that of rail."
" The canal systems of our fathers are of the past, and the day of
meager channels and small boats is drawing to a close. The
railway is better adapted to the quick, detailed and distributive traf¬
fic of our country. Natural channelways developed to a capacity
suited to fleets and boats of large burden, so articulated at vantage
points as to require no change of cargo—a great trunk system with
tributary waterways of indefinite extent, joining market points of
heavy traffic origin and destination—th s is the system of the
future."
H: ^ li: 4: 4: 4>
" Waterways as at present existing, in detached lengths, unsuited
to economical transport, unavailable a good portion of each year,
can not be expected to at ain great results and yet their Influence is
admitted. Waterways should constitute connected systems as well
as railways: and they should be so planned as to avoid transship¬
ment as much as possible." (a)
"Col. John G. Stevens, a veteran canal engineer, who was after¬
ward interested in railways, fixed the minimum size of a steam boat,
for economy (in competition with railways), at 800 tons of cargo. Mr.
John B. Jervis accepted this dictum with some limitations. Mr.
Jervis was an authority on canal economics for half a century. The
limit is low rather than high, and should be put at one thousand
tons." (&)
" Every steamboat and ship owner lis a free competitor for traffic
thus adjusting profits to those of general business." (a)
Water transport is practically reduced to special cargo
freight on long distance movement. It creates traffic which
might not otherwise exist and regulates that which it
does not carry.
The waterway is simply the old highway, improved by
the community for the%common good, on which every man
may place his own conveyance without paying toll. To its
79
use, however, it is essential that the individual carry at a
profit and make each trip pay. To do this he must carry,
if necessary, at the cost oi hauling on the railway, or tie
up his boat, as the nimble competitor can usually command
a somewhat better rate. Below the cost of hauling, the
railway can not go without paying cash, but down to this it
may go in competition for a time, losing only wear and
tear, and any return above this expense is a contribution
toward net earnings. To meet or ruin a competitor, a cor¬
poration can make sacrifices and even risk its life where
an individual will not. Waterways that are not large
enough to develop actual commerce, that menace railway
tariffs without increasing the commercial movement, are
simply freight rate scare-crows and beneath the dignity of
a great government.
In the sense of the old highway, the waterway has pecul¬
iar claims. The theory of the railway is the same, a vital
theory to retain; but in the same sense, its practice is not
feasible. Even if the roadway and its maintenance were
provided by the State, still the same organizing force
would be required to provide equipment and to operate.
It has been ably contended that invested capital should
be considered in waterways the same as in railways. It is
held that though the government rather than individuals
makes the investment, the ultimate result to the country
as a whole is the same. This is a politico-economic ques¬
tion which space does not admit of discussion farther than
to say that in the one, the profits are difficult of restraint
and are concentrated into the hands of the few, while in
the other they are largely distributive; and also, that in
creating new agencies for special traffic we develop com¬
merce and industries not before profitable.
The practical elements of the problem will be brieñy re¬
ferred to under three heads :
Capital Account. In a railway, the capacity of a track is
limited, and as thedraffic increases new tracks are added, un¬
til three or four tracks are reqiffred, as in the Pennsylvania
Central or New York Central, thus multiplying the capital
80
account; in other words, the capital charge on traffic, be^
yond certain limits, is not measurably reduced by the greater
facilities provided—in fact, the history of railway invest¬
ments would show that it increases rather faster. On the
other hand, a waterway such as should be constructed for
speed, will have very great (almost unlimited) capacity for
traffic in its prism and its development is largely a matter
of lockage facilities—the ratio of capital charge being very
much reduced by traffic gro wth.
In considering, for instance, a ship canal, such as should
be constructed as an extension of the lakes to the Atlantic,
through the State of New York, it would probably cost less
than the investment represented by the two leading trunk
lines from Chicago to the seaboard. Its capacity would be
much greater than that of all the trunk lines and the actual
traffic (estimated at 50,000,000 tons) in excess of that now
carried by the New York Central, Erie and Pennsylvania
systems combined. A similar comparison may be made
from the lakes to the Gulf. In these investments, it is only
a question to the State of whether the people, directly and
indirectly, will derive a benefit of three to four per cent, on
the cost.
Maintenance, A proper waterway is, in the highest
sense, a permanent structure, an addition to natural feat¬
ures which deteriorates slowly and the maintenance of
which, under favorable circumstances, is a nominal charge.
On the contrary, maintenance and renewals are large items
of expense in railways, requiring a good fraction of the
gross earnings. Much of this expense is proportional to
the volume of traffic, while in the well constructed water¬
way, maintenance increases very little with the growth of
traffic. A few years' neglect and the railway is practically
ruined while the waterway still persists in nearly its origi¬
nal usefulness. In properly comparing the two invest¬
ments, the railway should be charged with the capitalized
amount required for maintenance and renewals in excess
of that for a waterway.
Operation. In competition, it is simply a question of
81
whether the waterway can carry as cheap as the railway
can haul- This simply uses up equipment and permanent
way, and can not long continue. In long continued compe¬
tition, the railway must also maintain its equipment and per¬
manent way. This sinks the capital account.
Let us give to this question a practical bearing.
'*The actual cost of hauling (average of 5 consolidated
locomotives on 816,115 car miles) was 0.6 of a mill per ton
per mile; including repairs to locomotives, fuel, stores and
train hands." {c)
" The cost per ton per mile on the best railroads, is 3
mills for through freight." (r) This includes all expenses
except capital account.
The rates on the Erie canal for some years have ranged
in the vicinity of 3 mills. This of course represents only
the expense of the traffic and the profits and not the main¬
tenance and operation of the canal. This would add about
one-third mill, or the cost is not greatly different from that
of the best railways.
The rates by lake for the past few years range from 0.4
to 0.7 mill per ton per mile in boats of 2,000 to 2,500 tons
cargo. This covers profits and all expenditures—interest,
insurance, maintenance and repairs.
If a waterway can now carry at a profit at one mill per
ton-mile it is beyond the reach of any long continued rail¬
way competition on the class of freight to which it is
adapted and probably beyond the possibilities of further im¬
provements in railway transportation as now handled. The
cost of maintenance and renewals on permanent way will
doubtless be greatly reduced in future; locomotive economy
may be improved, and the capacity of a car increased until
the same weight is placed on a wheel ae on the engine
driver; station and terminal expenses may be still farther
reduced. It seems difficult to conceive of the cost being
reduced to one-half the present limit even on a special
traffic which might tax the capacity of the road.
Consider a railway without capital account, involving
only the questions of maintenance and operation. As much
82
as one thonsaiid tons has been hauled in a single train on
the very best road in the country (the West Shore)
though the practical limit of the trunk railways is more
nearly 500 tons. Consider also a boat of the same capacity
and capable of making 10 to 12 miles in open water and.
half as much in a canal of proper constr uction.
; The .cost of fuel will not be greatly different between ter-
niinals; The crew will be about the same, but the time
will be somewhat longer, though not greatly so as freight
is. ordinarily moved; including for the railway stoppages,
switching, and incidentals by the way, the trip expenses will
he about the same. The cost of the boat, its maintenance
and renewals, will be less than that of the train, but it will
make fewer trips and is idle ninety days or more, unless in
the south. Allowing moderately long trips on cargo freight
and such a proportion between open navigation and canal
as will ordinarily obtain on long carriage, the two accounts
may not stand greatly different.
On the railway, however, there are still the large items
of maintenance and renewals of permarnent w y which, in
long continued competition, throw the advantage to the
waterway.
A somewhat careful consideration of the problem—insur¬
ance, renewals, interest, profits, part cargo one way and
business contingencies—leads to the conclusion that a boat
for 1,000 tons of cargo should carry for about one mill per
ton mile, when engaged in an established traffic.
Such a boat, for a mixed navigation, would be about 200
ft. long, 30 ft. wide and 10 ft. deep, capable of making ten
or twelve miles per hour, in open water. The locks should
be long enough to include a consort, thus carrying 2,000 to
2,500 tons per trip at a reduced rate. Locks should be of
high lift and with every appliance for speedy working.
Canal prism should be at least 1 times the draft of boat
in depth and with a sectional area at least five times that
of the boat.
While the writer regards such a capacity as the mini¬
mum which should be considered, at the same time he
83
urges that all waterways should be eonstructed for as much
more as the conditions make feasible, for instance, that ail
permanent structures be designed in three classes, accord¬
ing to the route on which they may be placed.
(a) Locks, 450 ft. long and 60 ft. wide.
(b) Locks, 337 ft. long and 45 ft. wide.
(c) Locks, 225 ft. long and 30 ft. wide, and in special
situations of double length.
These should have such standard depths on miter sills as
it may be feasible to some time obtain in the navigation of
which they form a part. Of course, under certain circum¬
stances, locks for fleets would be expedient, the sizes above
indicating the beam and length of craft for which provision
should be made.
Such waterways would surely hold their own, promote
manufactures and industries which might not otherwise
develop, create new traffic and in the enhanced prosperity
the railway would be the gainer. The best railway prop¬
erties are along water routes.
(a) See Journal of Association of Engineering Societies, January,
1886; " A Rational Policy of Public Works," by the writer.
(b) Chicago Daily News, April 7, 1886. " The Hennepin Canal."
(c) Trs. Am. Soc. C. E., June, 1885. " The Radical Enlargement of
the Erie Canal," discussion by E. LI Corthell.
INTERESTING LETTER FROM GEN. JAMES H.
WILSON.
Messrs. Daniel L. Shorey, Harvey B. Hurd, Edwin Lee
Brown, Committee on Main Drainage Citizens* Associa¬
tion, Chicago.
Dear Sirs: A few days ago L. E. Cooley, Esq., civil en¬
gineer, handed me a copy of his brief on The Lakes and
Gulf Waterway," which I have read with great interest,
and inasmuch as I was, over twenty years ago, when still
an officer of the army, connected with the consideration of
a deep water w^ay between the great lakes and the Mississippi
river, adapted to the national defense, and had the honor
of recommending to the War Department the plan referred
to in the brief as " Gen. Wilson's plan," I now desire to
add a word of explanation.
84
I have no copy of the reports made by me at hand, and hence
can not undertake to quote, but I wish it to be understood
that in limiting: the proposed canal from the south fork of
the Chicago river to Joliet to a width of 160 feet and a
depth of eight feet, I was controlled largely by the consid¬
eration that it would not be practicable to secure appropria¬
tions at that time for a greater depth, and not by the belief
that a greater depth would not be desirable and necessary.
Investigations made subsequently by others have verified
my conclusions as to the route and also as to the width of
the canal, and I now wish to tdd that I fully concur in the
opinion that the depth should be made as great as twenty-
two feet, with such slope as to secure a discharge of 600,000
cubic feet and a velocity of two miles per hour.
I am satisfied that such a discharge will not appreciably dis¬
turb the lake level, and that the work is more fully justified
now than ib was then by the various considerations set forth
at length in my former reports. Indeed, the great increase
of the wealth and population of the country will make the
undertaking less costly, relatively, than 1 estimated it twenty
years ago, and vastly more importa't. The work was then
required for the purpose of facilitating the national de¬
fense, and we are now not only amply able as a nation to pay
for it, but we are twenty years nearer to the inevitable war
with the Dominion of Canada and the British empire,
which will imperatively demand its construction. In com¬
mon prudence we should not delay the inauguration of the
project for a single month, for when it comes to be needed
it will pay for itself over and over again the first season after
hostilities begin. But greiit as will be its utility in times
of war, it will be still greater in times of peace, as an aux¬
iliary to the health and prosperity of our greatest inland
city, and as a commercial highway to the Middle, Western
and Northwestern States.
If I have read the brief correctly, it is not proposed to
ask Congress-to pay the entire cost of enlarging the canal,
but only for that part required by the national defense, while,
the city of Chicago will pay for that part, designed to re¬
lieve it of its sewage. This, it seems to me, is an offer
of extraordinary liberality, but my experience leads me to
believe that it will be easier to induce Congress to carry out
the entire project, as ] am sure it ought to do, than to un¬
dertake a part of it in conjunction with the city of Chicago
or the State of Illinois.
The work is a thoroughly national one, and has been suf¬
ficiently investigated and considered to justify an appro¬
priation for starting and carrying it on, and I trust your
85
<îommittee will conclude to ask Congress for the first
^5,000,000 at the present session; and I feel confident if
the case is properly presented the appropriation will be
made, especially if it is properly backed up by the State au-
iihorities, and at the proper time by the State Legislature.
Wishing you all success in starting and carrying forward
this great national work, I am, very respectfully, your
obedient servant, James H. Wilson.
Wilmington, Del., April 25, 1888.
Note.—Although the observations of Gen. Wilson relative to the
^national character of the Lakes and Gulf Waterway, and the conse¬
quent duty of the Government to pay the cost of its construction are
true, the policy of Congress to confine its appropriations in aid of
navigation to " natural waterways " is so strongly reinforced by the
demands of the latter, that it is regarded as practicably impossible
to induce Congress in the near future to undertake the construction
of the canal work involved in this improvement. The- friends of
this Waterway are convinced that if it is constructed within any
reasonable time, the canal part, that is, the wide and deep channel
•from the lake to Joliet, will have to be built by Chicago. If this is
done, the Government can be relied upon to do the remainder of the
work, that is, to put in the necessary locks and dams between Lock-
port and LaSalle. This will be in harmony with the present policy
of Congress, and with assurances of members of the Eivers and
Harbors Committee.
COMMITTEE ON MAIN DRAINAGE,
OF THE
Citizen's Association^ Chicago.
Daniel L. Shorey, Harvey B. Hdbd,
Edwin Lee Brown.
Commission Appointed by Legisiature of IliinoiSa
John A. Roche, Mayor of Chicago.
Andrew J. Bell, ") ^ ^
Bernard A. Eckhart, j
Thomas H. Riley, Í x í- „
'X. 0. MacMillan, I Representatives.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Appointed by Peoria Convention of Oct 11 and 12, 1887, to present Lahes
and Gulf Waterway Project to Congress and to
the National Conventions.
Richard J. Prendergast, Chicago, President.
Charles P. King, of Peoria, Secretary.
ILLINOIS.
1st Bist., John C. Bore; 2d Bist., Joseph B. Malonet;
3d Bist., Judge Richard Prendergast ; 4th Bist, Harvey
B. Hurd ; 6th Bist., Gen. Smith P.Atkins; 7th Bist.,
Wm. Cullen; 9th Bist., J. E. Ong; 10th Bist., Chas.
P.King; 11th Bist., Chas. H. Beere; 12th Bist.,
W. H. McCormick ; 18th Bist., Alfred Oren-
dorp; 14th Bist.,B. M. Moore; 15th Bist.,
Judge A. Y. Trogden; 18th Bist., W. P.
Bradshaw; 19th Bist., Tiios. S. Ridgway.
IOWA.
1st Bist., Philip M. Capo. 2d Bist., Hon. Jerry Murphy.
3d Bist., Hon. John Mullkern.
MISSOURI.
8th Bist., Hugh J. Brady. 9th Bist., C. S. Rogers.
10th Bist-, M. J. Murphy.
STATES.
Tennessee, J. W. Clapp. California, E. H. Jack.
Maryland, W. F. Cowden.
THE NATIONAL WATERWAY.
Atlantic via the Lakes to the GuIíF.
Deep enough for the largest vessels whichmay float the
lakes toUh depth and vridthfor speed.
A trunk passing 50 cities of aggregate 5,000,000
population (census of 1880) and to which all other
waterways are tributary; extending the Atlantic,
Gulf and Lakes coasts throughout the United
States, and connecting with the Pacific.
/mm a Co. Engra., Cfit»
3 5556 041 294588