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merce. Considerable of the delay encountered in this work may be ac- counted for by the limit appropria- tions available and by the fact that construction was possible only during low stages of the river, a condition prevailing usually from July to No- vember. lature empowered a stock company to construct a canal around the falls of Ohio, with suitable locks, docks and basin. This work was completed five years later. Three locks of equal lifts were built in the canal at the western end, each chamber having a width of 50 feet and a usable length of 185 feet. The federal government The canalization project, instituted with the construction of this first lock and dam, proposed to maintain a depth of only six feet over a distance of 90 miles. This plan later was al- tered to provide a depth of nine feet with 49 locks and dams over the entire length of the river—the con- dition that now exists. Each dam has a lock chamber 110 feet wide with 600 feet available length. Prevent Increase in Flood Height To permit open river navigation when the natural depth is 9 feet or more and to prevent any increase in flood height, all the dams except the one immediately below Pittsburgh are of the movable type. The latter re- places original dams No. 1 and No. 2. Navigation passes through a pass from 600 to 1248 feet wide in the movable dams. This section consists of a series of wickets, 3 feet 9 inches wide and 16 to 20 feet long, each supported in an inclined position by a prop. The dam is lowered by means of a derrick boat which releases the props and permits the wickets to be lowered so as to lie flush with the bottom of the river. The cost of the lock and dam con- struction just completed was about $110,000,000. Building the Louisville and Portland canal cost $5,360,000, while channel improvement work. in- volved $11,000,000, or an aggregate of $126,360,000. In improving the Monongahela river, the chief tributary of the Ohio, $13,200,000 was spent. The Allegheny river improvement work cost $7,200,000 and other tribu- taries $38,000,000. The cost of op- erating and maintaining Ohio river locks and dams is estimated at $2,250,- 000 annually, with the maintenance of the channel an additional $500,000. The gross savings in river transpor- tation as compared with rail charges in recent years have offset by a sub- stantial margin the fixed charges in- cident to the large investment in river construction. The annual net saving 66 In 1825 the Kentucky legis- on the Ohio river system is estimated at about $15,000,000. The war de- partment states that the Monongahela river improvement has paid for itself and has earned a surplus of about $100,000,000, returned to the general wealth of the nation through reduced transportation costs. Preparing a route from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi river enhances the value of important tributaries of the Ohio, although considerable of the ATUTTALTVEETTUUOTLTVGEETEETVUGHUIGUATTRUELLUCEELICGLLLUGLCOALLCGAUCGALLUGAUELAILUCELCCOALPCARULGAAELD President Hoover Speaks RESIDENT HOOVER, in his ad- dress at Louisville, Ky., Oct. 28, on the occasion of opening the 9-foot channel of the Ohio river from Pitts- burgh, Pa. to Cairo, Ill. outlined the policies of his administration in the development of waterways, which we abstract as follows: Modernizing all waterways which show economic justification. A 9-foot depth should be established in the remainder of the Mississippi trunk sys- tem, and in the tributaries, for the time being, a depth of 6 or 7 feet. The transportation system should be extended outward from the main trunk line. Government barge lines must be continued through the pi- oneering stages but with a view ulti- mately of private initiative. The entire Mississippi system should be completed within the next five years. Having completed 746 miles of in- tracoastal canals, there is still ap- proximately 1000 miles yet to build, which should be completed within ten years. Improvement of the channels should continue, and the works neces- sary for stabilizing the levels of the Great Lakes should be built. A waterway for ocean going vessels through the St. Lawrence inward to the Great Lakes is one of the most vital improvements to transportation on the North American continent and all obstacles to this end should be overcome. After having disposed of electrical power it would be possible to carry out the entire construction for less than $200,000,000 divided be- tween the two governments and spread over a period of ten years. Harbors and the littoral waterways extending inland from them must be unceasingly maintained to serve the increasing size of ocean going vessels and expanding volume of commerce. Total construction of the projects mentioned amounts to three or four times that of the Panama canal. PTUUUUTUUUURTHTTLLLLUULUEHHLLLLULUOOUOLALLULLOUOHOAULLLOUOOOULUULUOCOOTATOIUUOOOHATLLUUOOOATIO UOTE traffic on these branches is localized. On the Monongahela, for example, the bulk of the traffic is in coal destined for and carried by Pittsburgh steel producers. In 1928, traffic on the Monongahela amounted to 27,412,143 tons, compared with 20,938,267 tons for the Ohio proper and 57,827,861 tons for the entire Ohio system. The movement over the Ohio has fluc- tuated considerably over the past 75 years, due to several factors. Railroad construction during the middle of the MARINE REVIEW—November, 1929 nineteenth century provided a com- petition that took a large portion of the flourishing business formerly en- joyed by packet operators. From about 1875 to 1904 shipments of coal from the upper Ohio to the lower Mississippi expanded markedly, but the development of coal fields in west- tern Kentucky and Alabama at the beginning of the current century re- stricted the movement from that time onward. Work on lock and dam con- struction became more concentrated about 1910,. interfering with trans- portation and resulting in a decline in traffic from about 13,000,000 tons in 1905 to about 4,600,000 tons in 1917. The latter year marked the low point, and the total for 1928 represents an increase of nearly 400 per cent for the 11 years. Carrying Capacity Greatly Increased Use of the Ohio river still is well below its estimated capacity, and its potential carrying abilities can be greatly increased by additional dam construction. Its width varies from less than 900 feet in its upper reaches to nearly 6000 feet near its mouth, and its slope varies from 11% inches per mile in the upper reaches to 3 inches per mile near the mouth. The slope of the river is fairly uni- form with the exception of the break at the Falls of the Ohio at Louis- ville, where there is a low-water drop of 26 feet in a distance of two miles. It is natural to expect that future years will witness an upward trend in river tonnage figures, although as frequently pointed out by authorities considerable work remains to be done in the construction of adequate ter- minals in order to provide small ship- pers the facilities now enjoyed by large companies through their private docks. On the Allegheny river from Pittsburgh to New Kensington, Pa., there are 34 terminals, all private, used for loading and unloading barges. On the Ohio river from the point at Pittsburgh to Woodlawn, Pa., there are 31 private terminals, none of which are public. There are 39 private and 2 public terminals on the Monon- gahela river up to Clairton, Pa. The latest development in this con- nection is the application by the Mississippi Barge Line Co., a $3,000,- 000 organization, for a certificate from the interstate commerce commission under the Dennison act. This act permits the commission to establish joint river and rail rates. The Missis- sippi line proposes to establish a common-carrier barge service between Cincinnati and New Orleans and re- cently placed orders for five towboats and 50 barges for this service. : ; I