1915. The deepening of the channel of the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Trenton, authorized in 1910, was completed in May. The channel is now 200 ft. wide and has a minimum depth of 12 ft. at mean low water. au The Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal, the purchase of which was thorized by Congress in 1912, passed into the possession of the Federal Government in the Spring and was opened to free navigation. The price paid was $500,000. The Beaufort cut from Beaufort Inlet to Pamlico Sound has been completed, and within a few years there will be a sheltered waterway, with a minimum depth of 12 ft., extending along the coast from Norfolk, Va., to Beaufort, I C. The construction of the harbor of refuge at Cape Hook, N. C., is proceeding. Congress appropriated $500,000 for the continuation of this work, and authorized contracts for an additional sum of $600,000. At Charleston, S. C., the work of widening the 28-ft. harbor channel is almost finished, and the 26-ft. channel at Savannah, Ga., is likewise nearing completion. Gulf Coast. The deepening of the channel in Hillsboro Bay to Tampa has been continued, and $200.000 was appropriated for its completion. The dredging of the channel in Mobile Bay to a depth of 27 ft. will soon be done. The Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River has been dredged to a depth of 31 ft. at mean low water. was completed and opened to navigation throughout its length in 1913. This canal is a link of the project for a waterway covering a distance of 700 miles from New Orleans to the Rio Grande below Brownsville, Tex., which in turn is a part of the great plan for a protected waterway along the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. The canal from Sabine Pass to Port Arthur was deepened and widened, and $400,000 more was appropriated for the continuation of the work. Pacific Coast.-The construction of the immense jetties and the dredging of the river bottom at the mouth of the Columbia River were continued throughout the year, and Congress appropriated $1,000,000 to carry on the work in 1914. The harbor channel at Oakland, Cal., was dredged to a depth of 22.5 ft. at mean low water, and the 30-ft. channel to the artificial harbor at Los Angeles, together with the east and west basins of the harbor, are practically completed. River Improvement.-A million dollars was appropriated in 1913 for the continuation of the improvement of the Hudson River below Troy. The approaching completion of the New York State Barge Canal insures an increase of the commercial importance of the Hudson. The construction of the series of 54 locks and dams in the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and Cairo, which will give the river a minimum depth of nine feet throughout the year, is proceeding, 11 dams now being finished. An appropriation of $1,800,000 was made during the year for continuing the improvement, and the Secretary of War was authorized to make contracts for further work to cost not more than $3,200,000. Galveston Channel had during the past year a depth of 31 ft., slightly less than the depth during 1912. The work of securing a 30-ft. channel from the inner bar to 51st Street is now under way. The dredging of the Texas City Channel from Galveston to Texas City, which is ultimately to have a depth of 30 ft., has been continued, and a depth of 24 ft. has been attained for most of the distance. The work of dredging the Houston Ship Channel to secure a depth of 25 ft. from Galveston to Long Beach, near Houston, is being done at the joint expense The dam now under construction in of the Federal Government and Harris the Mississippi River just below MinCounty, Texas. The canal from Gal-neapolis will be completed in 1915. veston to Corpus Christi, an intracoastal waterway skirting the coast of Texas for a distance of 200 miles. For the construction of levees along the Mississippi River and the deepening of its channel, with a view to securing a permanent depth of nine feet below the mouth of the Ohio River, Congress appropriated $6,000,000 during the year. This structure will give a depth of 9.5 ft. at Minneapolis. In addition to supplying that city with a navigable waterway, the new dam will afford facilities for the generation of a minimum supply of electric power of 10,000 h. p. daily. The electric plant will probably be leased and operated by the University of Minnesota. The improvement of the channel of the Mississippi from Minneapolis to the mouth of the Ohio is proceeding, $2,500,000 having been appropriated for the work in 1913. The work of making a permanent 6-ft. channel in the Missouri River from Kansas City to the mouth of the river is being pushed forward, and $2,000,000 more was appropriated toward its completion. The construction of the fourth lock on the American side of St. Mary's River is now under way; a new lock and canal have been authorized and an appropriation of $1.500,000 made to start their construction. The canalization of the Columbia River from its mouth to Lewiston, Idaho, a distance of 500 miles, is expected to be finished in 1915, after which Lewiston will take its place as one of the seaports of the nation. Many other rivers of more or less commercial importance are being improved by the construction of locks and dams and by dredging, the Warrior, Black Warrior, Tombigbee, Trinity, Brazos, Tennessee, Cumberland, and Detroit all receiving appropriations, while scores of smaller streams are also being deepened and widened. Improvements by State and Private Agencies. The New York State Barge Canal, for the construction of which the people of the state voted a bond issue of $101,000,000 in 1903, is about two-thirds finished. On Oct. 1 the value of contracts executed amounted to approximately $83,000,000, and the value of work completed to approximately $64,000,000. The route of the old Erie Canal and its branches has been largely abandoned, the Barge Canal project being largely a scheme of river canalization. The main branch of the new waterway follows the bed of the Mohawk River from the Hudson River to a point near Rome, after which Wood Creek, Oneida Lake, and the Oneida, Seneca and Clyde rivers are utilized to carry the channel to the western part of the state, where the bed of the old canal is retained for the remainder of the distance to Buffalo. The new canal, with a minimum depth of 12 ft. and a minimum width at the bottom of 75 ft., will accommodate barges of 3,000 tons capacity, making possible a traffic 25 times as large as the old canal was able to accommodate. New York City and Buffalo are planning the construction of extensive terminal facilities to care for the commerce the Barge Canal is expected to bear, and the Federal Government is expending large sums on the improvement of the Hudson River. The Cape Cod Canal, from Cape Cod to Buzzard's Bay, is about threefourths done. This canal, which is being built by a private corporation, was begun in June, 1909, and it is expected that it will be finished in 1915. It is eight miles long, with a minimum bottom width of 100 ft. and a mean low water depth of 25 ft. A tonnage of about 25,000,000 passes around Cape Cod annually, and it is expected that a large part of this tonnage will pass through the canal, which will afford a much safer and shorter route. The Federal Government has authorized a survey of Buzzard's Bay with a view to the removal of the obstructions at the southern entrance of the Canal. now Other Waterway Projects.-One of the most important movements toward the improvement of inland waterways is that for securing a chain of intracoastal waterways from Maine to Florida. Already several links of the chain have been completed, the notable advances of the year being the improvement of the upper Delaware River and the opening of the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal. During 1913, Gen. W. H. Bixby, Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, in reports to the Secretary of War, recommended that the Federal Government construct immediately a lock canal, 12 ft. deep with a bottom width of 90 ft., from the Delaware River to New York Harbor, purchase the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and transform it into a sea-level canal, and open a sevenfoot waterway from Beaufort, N. C., to the upper St. John's River, Fla., whence it is proposed subsequently to build a canal across Florida to the Gulf of Mexico to connect with the chain of waterways being constructed | tributaries of the Ohio River were along the entire Guif coast. overwhelmed by the tremendous downpour, and hundreds of miles of country were submerged. The deluge of water made the Ohio River overflow, causing serious losses all along its banks, the greatest damage being done at Henderson, Evansville and Cairo. The Mississippi overflowed its banks in many places, but its waters did not reach such a high stage as during the great floods of 1912 (A. Y. B., 1912, p. 267). The unexpected disasters along the smaller streams of Indiana and Ohio has caused a more determined movement toward measures for flood prevention and control. Federal, state, and local governments are authorizing investigations of the entire problem. The annual loss from floods in the United States averages more than $50.000,000. The saving of half this amount each year would soon pay for a system of reservoirs and dikes which would prevent the continual recurrence of destructive inundations. (See also XXIII, Civil En The construction of a great waterway from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico, for which there has been much agitation during recent years, and toward the building of a part of which the people of Illinois voted a bond issue of $20,000,000 in 1908, is not receiving general support. The Secretary of War denied the application of the Sanitary District of Chicago for permission to divert from Lake Michigan 10,000 cub. ft. of water per second, instead of 4,167 cub. ft. as at present authorized, on the grounds that the resulting reduction of the level of the Great Lakes would cause an injury to navigation that would more than offset the benefits arising from the increased flow of water through the Chicago Drainage Canal. The Ohio Valley Floods. The Spring of 1913 witnessed a most disastrous flood in Indiana and Ohio. Between March 23 and 26 there was a rainfall averaging six inches all over both states. All the northern gineering.) THE PANAMA CANAL Appropriations.-The total appropriation made by Congress for the Panama Canal up to June 30, 1913, amounted to $349,505,223.14, including $16,265,393 appropriated by the Urgent Deficiency Act of June 23. 1913. Of this amount $10,676,950 was for fortifications, $4,870.000 of which was appropriated by the Act of June 25, and $21,411.56 was for the relief of private persons. The balance of $338,806,861.58 was appropriated for the construction of the canal and is a charge against the total authorized bond issue of $375,200,900. Up to June 30, 1913, a total of $318,132,956.79 had been disbursed for canal construction, leaving an actual cash balance of $20,673,904.79. The balance available for appropriation is $36,394,038.42. The estimate for the fiscal year 1915, submitted to Congress on Dec. 2, is $26,326,985. by the close of the year ending June 30, 1913, on the completion of the lock gates by the contractors and on the cessation of slides. His latest report, published on Nov. 24, records the completion of the concrete work on the locks during the fiscal year 1913 and explains that but for slides the excavation of Culebra Cut would also have been completed. Slides and breaks have increased as the Cut was deepened. The most troublesome movement during the year was the slide at Cucaracha. It was predicted in the report for 1912 that the movement at this point was practically ended, most of the surface stone and clay having slid off, exposing several large dykes and flows of basalt which would maintain in place the remaining material. On Jan. 20, however, the basalt rocks broke and 2.000.000 cu. yd. of material slid into Status of the Work. Colonel the Cut, closing is completely. While Goethals' annual report for the fiscal the excavation of all the other slides year 1912 (A. Y. B., 1912, p. 268) in the dry could be completed by Jan. predicated the completion of the canal 1, 1914, it was apparent that the was removal of the Cucaracha slide by site of the Gatun locks at the close steam shovels would take several of the fiscal year 1912 (A. Y. B., 1912, months longer. It was decided, there- p. 269) was completed in November, With the exception of a few fore, to leave it for excavation by 1912. dredging as soon as dredges could be thousand cubic yards of miscellaneous brought into the cut through the locks. finishing, the concrete work of the A new agreement with the con- locks was completed on June 14; the tractors for the lock gates was en- total amount of concrete laid in the tered into on May 20 granting an locks to the close of the fiscal year extension of time for the completion was 2,040,715 cu. yd., of which 164,of the locks because of unavoidable 715 cu. yd. was placed during the The Gatun dam delays due to causes beyond the con- fiscal year. This agreement raised during the fiscal year to practractors' control. provided that all gates necessary to tically its full height, with three to The dry fill permit the lockage of vessels through five feet additional along the axis to one side of each flight from ocean to allow for settlement. ocean, should be completed by Oct. 1, amounted to 2,159,159 cu. yd., and while all the remaining gates at Ga- the hydraulic fill, which was stopped tun and Pedro Miguel should be com- in September, 1912, to 922,877 cu. pleted by Jan. 1, 1914, and at Mira- yd. In the spillway 21,719 cu. yd. of flores by March 1, 1914. On Sept. 26 concrete was placed during the year, a tug was locked through Gatun bringing the total to 224,132 cu. yd., Dredges Locks into Gatun Lake and on Oct. 1 and the construction of the hydrowater was admitted to Culebra Cut electric plank was begun. through sluices in the dike at Gam-worked in the canal prism throughboa. The dike was blown up on Oct. out the year, mainly for the removal 10 by a charge of eight tons of dyna- of silt; the dry excavation was commite exploded by the pressure of a pleted during the fiscal year 1912. button by President Wilson in Washington. Dredges immediately began work on the dike and on Oct. 20 dredges passed through the opening and attacked the north side of Cucaracha slide. The first lockage was made at Miraflores on Oct. 14 and the first lockage at Pedro Miguel on the 24th. On the 26th dredges began work on the south side of Curaracha slide. By the middle of December a channel was cut through the slide, and on Jan. 7, 1914, the crane boat La Valley completed the first passage of the canal from ocean to ocean. Secretary of War Garrison predicted in No-yd., representing an increase in the vember that the canal would be open for traffic early in the Spring of 1914, but the formal opening will await final completion later in the year. To Dec. 1 the grand total of canal excavation was 213.904,031 cu. yd., leaving 18,448,969 cu. yd. to be excavated, under the revised estimate of July 1, 1913. Atlantic Division.-The work of the Central Division.-Excavation during the fiscal year in this division, the work of which included all excavation betwen Gatun Dam and Pedro Miguel locks, was confined to Culebra Cut. From the canal prism a total of 12,582,124 cu. yd. of material was removed, nearly all of which was rock. According to the estimate of July 1, 1912, this amount was more than sufficient to complete the excavation in this section. Because of slides, however, there still remained to be excavated at the close of the fiscal year an estimated total of 8,200,000 cu. estimate of the preceding year of 9.280.237 cu. yd. The total amount of material excavated from this division from the American occupation to July 1, 1913, was 107,139,181 cu. yd., of which 93,305,975 cu. yd. was from Culebra Cut. By Nov. 1, the material to be removed was reduced to 6,251,300 cu. yd. Of the total excavation during the fiscal year, 5,899,200 cu. yd., or 46.67 per cent. was removed because of slides; in the fiscal year 1912 excavation because of slides amounted to 35.90 per cent. of the total. To the end of June, 1913, the total amount 289 of slide material removed from Cu- | yd., and practically completing the lebra Cut was 22,570,200 cu. yd., an concrete work. The west dam also increase of 2,304,200 cu. yd. over the was finished at elevation 107 with estimate submitted in Colonel Goeth- the addition of 114,117 cu. yd. of fill, als' report for 1912. As noted above bringing the total to 696,558 cu. yd. the Cucaracha slide has been the most troublesome. At the close of the fiscal year the area still in motion was approximately 50 acres. Since this slide began to move in July, 1905, a total of 3,859,500 cu. yd. of material had been removed from it to July 1, 1913, and on that date approximately 1,500,000 cu. yd. remained to be excavated. Little progress was made until water was admitted to the Cut in October; since then several dredges have been at work. From the West Culebra slide, covering an area of 68 acres, 1,922,700 cu. yd. of material was removed during the fiscal year, making the total since the slide began in October, 1907, 8,687,600 cu. yd.; the amount remain ing to be excavated on July 1, 1913, was estimated at 2,390,000 cu. yd. From the East Culebra slide, which developed in January, 1907, and covers an area of approximately 55 acres, the total amount of material removed to July 1, 1913, was 5,966,200 cu. yd., of which 1,676,300 cu. yd. was removed during the fiscal year, leaving about 2,000,000 cu. yd. Pacific Division.-The Pacific division, in charge of the construction of the locks and dams at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores and the excavation of the canal prism between the locks and below Miraflores to deep water in the Pacific, was abolished on Dec. 12, 1912, and its work divided between two new divisions reporting to the chief engineer, the fifth in charge of construction and dry excavation, and the sixth in charge of dredging operations. At Pedro Miguel 58,367 cu. yd. of concrete was added to the locks, bringing the total to 906,293 cu. The concrete work at Miraflores Locks was completed on May 17; 450,792 cu. yd. of concrete was placed during the fiscal year, bringing the total to 1,476,895 cu. yd. To the spillway dam 64,142 cu. yd. of concrete was added during the fiscal year; the concrete work on the spillway was completed on Oct. 8. The west dam was completed with the addition of 418,375 cu. yd. of dry fill, and 1,128,769 cu. yd. of back fill was placed in the lock walls, bringing the total to 2,006,054 cu. yd. Dry excavation in the canal prism, between the locks and below Miraflores totalled 3,120,851 cu. yd. during the fiscal year. The dredges in charge of the sixth division removed 4,321,956 cu. yd., leaving 3,447,774 cu. yd. to be excavated. At the close of the fiscal year the channel was excavated to a depth of 40 ft. for the first mile and a half, 35 ft. for the next five miles, and 10 to 30 ft. betwen this point and the locks. Siltage in the prism during the fiscal year amounted to 2,084,000 cu. yd. On Nov. 1 the material to be removed by dredging in this division amounted to 2,224.957 cu. yd. Labor. The number of employees on the work of the canal and the Panama Railroad increased steadily during the first nine montns of the fiscal year, from 34,957 on July 1, 1912, to 44,733 on March 26, the largest number in the history of the work. On June 30, 1913, the number of employees was 43,350, and by Oct. 29, the force had decreased to 36,426. The average number of American employees during the fiscal year was 5,110. DOCKS, WHARVES, AND WATERFRONTS BURR J. RAMAGE Administration.-The Federal Gov- | improves harbor channels. Several ernment, through the War Depart- bureaus of the Department of Comment, establishes harbor and pierhead merce aid the navigation of harbors lines that determine the length of and other watercourses by lighting, wharves; constructs breakwaters; it buoying, and charting them. Municalso deepens, widens and otherwise ipal and state governments are more |