Newspaper Page Text
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS, SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1907.
13
BIG WATERWAY ACROSS GEORGIA PLANNED
Col. Goodyear Suggests Connecting Mississippi With the Ocean
canal connecting the great Mis
sissippi with the Atlantic ocean, util
izing navigable 'river* for the greater
part of the route and building but
about 240 miles of actual canal—that Is
the plan proposed by Colonel C. P.
Goodyear, of Brunswick, Ga., who has
made an exhaustive study of the con
ditions.
They are laughing at Colonel Good
year In Brunswick. They laughed at
him when he said he could give Bruns
wick a deeper channel by blasting the
bar with dynamite. But he did It, and
Brunswick has today a channel seven
feet deeper than before. They laughed
at Robert Pulton when he built his
first steamboat—but they stopped
laughing when the steamer puffed up
the Hudson.
Here, In brief. Is Colonel Goodyear's
plan, n plan that has attracted the
attention of expert engineers, who
admit that there are no Insuperable ob
jections:
The Altnmaha and Ocmulgee rivers
nro navigable from-Brunswick, on the
Atlantic coast, to Macon. Prom the Mis
sissippi extend the Ohio and the Ten
nessee. Prom Rome, Ga., runs the
Coosa to Gadsden, Ala. The territory
to be excavated extends from a point
on the Tennessfe, near Guntersville or
Huntsville, Ala, to Gadsden, and from
Rome, Ga, through Atlnnta to Macon.
The total excavation would be about
240 miles in length.
Cost of Great Canal.
The cost? That can not be accu
rately estimated until an expert sur
vey Is made, but Colonel Ooodyear
gives figures based on the cost of other
canals, 'built under old conditions and
without modern machinery. Here are
some of Ills estimates:
If built with locks, the canal would
require eighty-four locks; to cost $10,-
000 each, or $840,000. Estimating ex
cavations at $10,000 a mile, 240 miles
would cost $2,400,000, giving a total
cost of $3.240,000. Keen estimating the
locks at $15,000 each, and the excava
tion at $15,000 a mile, the total cost
would be $4,850,000, or with the most
liberal estimate, $20,000 each for
locks and $20,000 per mile of canal,
the total would be $6,480,000, nut un
extravagant sum for such a result.
Colonel Goodyear believes that In
stead of locks a system of lifts, work
ing on the principle of elevators, would
be more practical and cheaper to op
erate. He estimates the cost of these
at $1,320,000. With the excavations
at $20,000 per mile, this would give a
total cost of $6,120,000.
To Cross Mountains.
That the mountains to be crossed
form no great obstacle, Is shown by
the fact that higher ranges have been
crossed by canals which are now be
ing operated profitably, and whose
commerce Is growing heavier every
year. A lift not exceeding 784 feet
Is to be overcome. The Morris canal
Is higher, the great Erie Is nearly as
high. Army engineers pfoject, and
pronounce feasible, a canal to cross the
Alleghenies to Pittsburg at an elevation
of 1,285 feet.
The apparently formidable character
of such an enterprise, which must
climb over the hills of Georgia, Is
shown to have parallels In America and
In Europe, many canals overcoming
an even greater rise and fall. The
same range of mountains to be crossed
Is far higher In Pennsylvania and New
York, ijhere they have been crossed by
a' canal since 1820 and 1850, when en
gineering had not nearly approached
Its present perfection. Those canals
were built by shovet and wheelbarrow,
under much more adverse conditions
than those confronting the engineer of
today.
The water to supply the proposed
canal Is bountifully furnished in Geor
gia and Alabama by many streams
which cross the route outlined. There
will be no lock of water to supply the
loss by wastage and evaporation.
Such a canul would give the South a
navigable waterway from the Atlantic
to Rome, Ga., through a prosperous
country which would supply ample
commerce for a profit upon the outlay.
It would open to direct commerce with
the Atlantic, the great Tennessee river.
64(1 miles in length, from Knoxville
through Alabama nnd hack Into Ten
nessee and Kentucky to a connection
with the Ohio and the Mississippi.
Government Survey.
Colonel Goodyear Is making an effort
to secure an expert survey of the pro
posed route. There was a survey made
by the United States Engineer Corps
In 1875, which Indicated that the plan
was feasible, but owing to favorable
traffic conditions at that time, no ef
fort was made to build the canal. Con
ditions have changed since then. Rail
road traffic is congested, commerce Is
Increasing to a point where new trans
portation facilities are Imperative, and
COLONEL GOODYEAR’S PLAN.
Great waterway would extend
from navigable rivers to Atlantic
ut Brunswick, passing by Atlanta
nnd Macon.
the country is rich enough to carry
such a project to completion.
Colonel Goodyear recommends the
building of the canul by private capi
tal, asking the government only for
the right to charge tolls. By private
capital the canal would be built more
expeditiously and the opposition of
railroad Interests in politics would not
be felt so strongly. Colonel Goodyear
believes, however, that tho population
benefited by the canal could easily
bring to bear enough influence to In
sure its bulldipg by the Federal gov
ernment. The financial returns from
canals are shown by the success of
similar enterprises in England nnd
America. In the Birmingham district
a canal was capitalized with 140
pound shares, and Its yearly dividends
were 140 pounds. Another was capi
talized with 200 pound shares, anil the
dividends were 160 pounds yearly. The
Erie canal was completed in 1825 and
later enlarged. In 1884 It was made a
free canal. It had cost $39,000,000; It
had collected tolls sufficient to pay the
entire cost of construction and Inter
est, and bsldes this a surplus of $27,-
000,000. The state of New York Is now
spending $101,000,000 to double the
capacity of the Erie canal.
“The canal will be built some day,”
says Colonel Goodyear. "We may do
it or leave It for our children to do.
But now Is the time to begin It. Noth
ing la Impossible In the face of modem
engineering."
W. W. Finley, president of the 8outh.
ern railway, In nn Interview- published
recently, took up the matter or water
way Improvement and Its urgent need.
An extract from the Interview with
Mr. Finley follows:
"Without better and more extensive
transportation facilities, development
will be retarded and the South will fail
to reach that full degree of material
prosperity to which Its great natural
resources and the energy of its people
entitle ft.
"In some localities improved water
transportation will be of great benefit.
I think my position on this subject of
the proper policy to be pursued toward
the waterways is now well understood
throughout the South. I am most
heartily In favor of Improving to the
utmost capacity of their usefulness
every Bouthern harbor and every navi
gable river In 'the South. I believe
that sound economic policy demands
this course. I favor it because It will
be an Important factor In the upbulld-
|p~ of the South, and the railroads
of that section have nothing to fear
from anything that tends to the devel
opment of Southern trade.”
GETTING OFF THE EARTH;
PAINTING A TALL STACK
HUMAN FLIES AT THEIR WORK.
The black speck at the top of one picture shows one of the painters.
Tho other shows him swinging to the ladder, half way up.
It Takes a Steady Brain and Some Nerve to
Put a New Dress on This
Chimney.
ropes extending down to the roof. Then
the men who are going to do the paint
ing climb into little “fall.**"—prophetic
name that—and haul themselves up un
far oh they wont to go. It Is easy
sailing then up and down the stuck,
until a tnan has to shift his position,
when it is necessary to go to the top
again and move the block.
A chimney like that on the heating
plant requires about two and one-half
days' work for three men. In that
time it is completely covered with
gruphite p*ilnt. And for this Job of
risking their lives for more than two
days Burdtitte and Vawter divide $50,
after paying a helper.
As far as the writer Is concerned,
they can have the Job.
But they don’t seem to mind. Both
men have been In the business about
live years, and neither has had more
than one bad fall. Burdette dropped
25 feet once, without doing himself any
damage; and Va»wter fell 40 feet in
Jacksonville, which tumble put several
dents in him which It took weeks to get
odt.
Neither man drinks and only one of
them smokes. Both of them are slight
in build, but muscular, which is natu
ral, considering the Job. For climbing
tall chimneys is no place fdr fat men.
NEED A FENCE?
Page Fence Erected,
Gall For Our Fence Man
W. J. DABNEY IMP, GO.,
95, 98 and 100 80. Forsyth 8trs«t.
If you have circulated anywhere In
the vicinity of the Georgia Railway
and Electric Company’s heating plant
lately, maybe you have noticed n cou
ple of human files crawling up or down
the 160-foot stock. If vou have, you
saw the firm of Burdet.c and Vawter
at work—for this pair of gravlty-de,
tiers has been engnged In the cheerful
pasttme of slapping a coat of graphite
paint on the 4,800 square feet of chim
ney.
The writer went down with a view
of taking some pictures nnd writing
something about the gentle art of tall
chimney painting. He thought that
which could be taken from the top of
a slack. And doubtless there are. Hut
as far as he Is concerned they may re
main untaken.
For any normal man would rather he
at the bottom looking up than at the
top looking down.
Maybe you think 160 feet Is not high,
whne it Is the height of a stack. Hut
that gives you another think.' It Is
more than high—Is very high.
But it's a cinch for Burdette and
Vawter.
When they get ready lo paint they
send a man up tho stack by paeans or
the ladder on the side, and he nttaehes
there ought to he some nice pictures a couple of blocks at Unstop, with
A iilf.tm. friafa.it itt
Whltitj, Ophm,. Itar.
pit.., C«c./.r, CM.,./.
Ttkacia ..4 ll.iaufl.-
■I. pr hint tiijgif/M.
The Only Kceley lniH* (
tutsia Georgia.
229 WoodwirJ At)., ATLMTA, GA.
SHEARS
SHARPENED
failed for and delivered.
Phone Bell 2428—Atlanta 442.
HEALEY BARBERS’ SUPPLY CO.,
No. 1 N. Forsyth Street.