La Trappe River, Maryland.-In 1887 and 1889 the Maryland Steamboat Company, for the improvement of this river, dredged about 12,375 cubic yards of material.

Claiborne Harbor, Maryland.--Dredging at a cost of about $23,000 has been done at various times since 1888 by the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company alongside of its wharf, which extends out about 1,200 feet from the shore, and to deep water in the bay.

Wicomico River, Maryland.-A large section of this river above the drawbridge was dredged to a depth of 7 feet by the citizens of Salisbury, at a cost of about $25,000.

No further information has been obtained in relation to improvements on navigable waters of the United States in this district by private corporation or individuals, either alone or in conjunction with the Government, nor of improvements by the United States within corporate city limits.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Brig. Gen. G. L. GILLESPIE,

JARED A. SMITH, Colonel, Corps of Engineers.

Chief of Engineers, U. S. A.

(9) REPORT OF COL. PETER C. HAINS, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, BALTIMORE, MD., DISTRICT.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, Baltimore, Md., August 5, 1902. GENERAL: In compliance with the instructions contained in your letter dated July 25, 1902, I have the honor to report as follows: Patapsco River and channel to Baltimore, Md. This improvement extends from the city limits of Baltimore, near Fort McHenry, down the Patapsco River and into the Chesapeake Bay to a point off Sandy Point light-house, a distance of about 19 miles. All depths given in this report refer to mean low water.

From the beginning of operations in 1853, to the attainment of a 24-foot depth in 1874, the municipality of Baltimore worked in conjunction with the United States in dredging that depth, the city expending about $750,000. Since 1874, the United States alone has made all the improvement to this channel, always operating outside the city limits, and never adjacent to wharves.

At

The main, or inner, harbor of Baltimore has been improved by the city of Baltimore alone. The southern boundary of the city at the mouth of the harbor is on a line drawn about east and west from the most southern point of Fort McHenry to the southern boundary line of the United States light-house establishment at the Lazaretto. that city limit the main ship channel, improved by the United States, joins the channels of the inner harbor improved by the city of Baltimore to a depth of 30 feet for a length of about 3,000 feet on the eastern side and a length of about 6,000 feet on the western side, and graduated depths varying from 27 to 17 feet for the remaining portion

of the inner harbor, as shown on the accompanying map." These improvements were begun by the city as early as 1799, as will appear from the following copy of a letter from the first mayor of Baltimore: BALTIMORE, September 27, 1799.

Gentlemen of the City Council:

The cleaning of the harbor of Baltimore is certainly an object of the first magnitude to the city, and the board of wardens were at much pains and great expense in procuring a machine for raising the mud out of the basin, which I verily believe is as well calculated for the purpose as any it is in our power to obtain, but unless we had a place of deposit for the mud or could get it taken from the machine, the expense of scows and hands to unload them, with the annual support of the superintendent and horses is more than the same number of scow loads would cost by scooping; besides it can be taken up in that way from the wharves and channel with less interruption to the trade of the place than it can possibly be done by the machine, and although I confess it is with great reluctance I can be brought to consent to lay aside this machine, which cost so much money, and in which the expectations of the citizens were so great, yet it gives me real pain to find so little can be done for the money expended in its support, and therefore I submit it to the council whether it would not be as well to dispose of the horses now as to keep them over winter at the present high price of forage, and to strip and lay up the machine at least for the present.

JAMES CALHOUN,

The amount expended by the city upon those improvements up to 1875 is unknown, but in 1876 a harbor board was constituted by the city and records kept, which show an expenditure of $1,647,408.25 for dredging from 1876 to 1901 inclusive, the expenditure including the South Branch of the Patapsco River, Spring Garden, and Jones Falls. Adding that amount to the sum ($750,000) expended by the city upon the main ship channel, in the approaches to the harbor, as given in the fourth paragraph of this report, the known total expended by the city in the navigable waters of the United States amounts to $2,397,408.25. The Maryland Steel Company dredged a channel, 100 feet wide and 26 feet deep, for a distance of a little over 1 mile, from the main ship channel to their works at Sparrows Point, at an expense of $67,177.04. In addition, the same company expended $37,080 in dredging in the Patapsco River near their shipyard at Sparrows Point.

The Northern Central Railroad Company dredged a channel a little over one-half mile long from the main ship channel in the Patapsco River to their Canton elevator, outside the city limits. The channel is about 100 feet wide and has a controlling depth of 29 feet in it. The cost is unknown.

Other dredging operations of private corporations and individuals have been confined to slips between piers, and between ends of piers and pierhead lines within the city limits.

Harbor of southarest Baltimore (Spring Garden), Md.-This section is made up of the South Branch of the Patapsco River from the main ship channel near Fort McHenry to the Light Street Bridge, and Spring Garden, which extends from Light Street Bridge to the foot of Eutaw street. The boundary of the city of Baltimore is on a line drawn due east and west from the end of Ferry Point to the shore in Baltimore County.

No work has ever been done by the United States in this locality, but operations are about to be commenced under the law of June 13, 1902, providing for a continuing contract to dredge a channel 100 feet wide at bottom and 27 feet deep from the main ship channel near Fort

a Not printed.

McHenry to the foot of Eutaw street at an estimated cost of $314,000. Forty-three per cent of this work will be within the city limits and per cent outside of them.

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From 1876 to 1900, inclusive, the municipality of Baltimore has operated in this locality, dredging a channel about 100 feet wide and 17 feet deep. This, with other dredging in the vicinity, cost the city $243,141.69, which is included in the total expended by the city as given in the preceding report.

Conclusion. The above, so far as known to me, covers the law quoted in your letter, so far as it relates to the navigable waters of the United States in the district in my charge.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Brig. Gen. G. L. GILLESPIE,
Chief of Engineers. U. S. A.

PETER C. HAINS, Colonel, Corps of Engineers.

(10) REPORT OF LIEUT. COL. CHAS. J. ALLEN, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, WASHINGTON, D. C., DISTRICT.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, Washington, D. C., August 20, 1902. GENERAL: In compliance with the requirements of letter from the Chief of Engineers, July 25, 1902, I have the honor to submit herein a statement, so far as can be ascertained by this office, of cases in which navigable waters of the United States have been, or are to be, improved by private parties, either alone or in conjunction with the Government. * * *

The following, as to work on the Potomac at and below Washington, by private parties, is taken from a report to myself, under date of July 29, 1902, by Mr. F. C. Warman, assistant engineer:

POTOMAC RIVER.

It is stated in the American Encyclopædia that "the navigation of this river was early an object of attention, and by the operations of the Potomac Company, incorporated in Maryland and Virginia in 1784, many improvements were effected." Nothing further is known of this corporation or its work.

In the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1883 Col. P. C. Hains states that "the improvement of the navigation of the Washington and Georgetown harbors was first undertaken by the corporation of Georgetown, D. C."

In 1804 a petition was presented to Congress by citizens of Georgetown stating that the channel of the Potomac River was obstructed by a mud bank recently formed below Masons (now Analostan) Island, and asking permission to erect a dam between the island and the Virginia shore. An act authorizing the construction of this dam was passed in 1805, and it was built soon afterwards. The dam did not have the desired effect, and the bar became shoaler each succeeding year.

A dredge was then put to work on the bar by the corporation of Georgetown and maintained for several years, but in 1824 an ordinance was passed authorizing its sale. The cost, amount, and precise location of the work done by this dredge are unknown.

By act approved March 11, 1833, Congress appropriated $150,000 "to aid the citizens of Georgetown in removing the obstructions to their navigation by causing the cut already made through the bar below the town to be enlarged and deepened, and for the further purpose of enabling them to make a free turnpike road on the Vir

APPENDIX A A AIMPROVEMENTS ON NAVIGABLE WATERS.

2589 ginia side of the river, and to purchase and make free forever the bridge over Little Falls." A commission of four citizens was appointed to superintend the improvement of the river, and they made a contract for dredging under which channels 15 feet deep and 200 feet wide were dredged through the bars in the Virginia Channel, at a total cost of $48,266.60, of which sum $5,000 was expended on the bar below Long Bridge and the remainder above that bridge.

During the summer of 1869 the corporate authorities of Georgetown, at their own expense, caused the bar in the Virginia Channel to be redredged to a depth of 13 feet and a width of 80 feet. About 13,000 cubic yards of material were excavated.

After the freshet of 1877 the merchants of Georgetown raised funds by private subscription and had the shoalest part of the bar redredged. The details of this work are not known.

In addition to the above-mentioned work for the general improvement of the channels, a considerable amount of dredging has been done in the channels immediately in front of various wharves at Washington, at different times, the excavated material being generally deposited behind the training dike in the Virginia Channel. Among the corporations which have done such work might be mentioned the Washington Gas Light Company, the American Ice Company, the Norfolk and Washington Steamboat Company, and the Washington and Alexandria Ferry Company. Similar work has also been done near a few of the Alexandria wharves and at Shepherds, the dredged material being deposited near Rosiers Bluff.

About 1894 or 1895 a cut was dredged from the channel of the Potomac River to the short wharf Collingwood Beach, a distance of about one-third of a mile, to afford access to this resort. The channel excavated was about 80 feet wide and 7 or 8 feet deep. The dredged material was thrown up alongside the cut. This work was of but very local benefit. Although the resort is no longer used as such, the cut is of assistance to the garrison at Fort Washington, the launch from which post frequently entering the same.

Potomac River at Mount Vernon, Va.-A channel from deep water in Potomac River to the wharf at Mount Vernon was dredged by the United States Government under appropriations for that purpose made by Congress, 1879-1890. The channel, completed in 1891, was 155 feet in width, with depths of 8 to 10 feet. The turning basin had a radius of 180 feet, with like depths of 8 to 10 feet. See pages 12521253, Appendix J, Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1892.

About 1894 the Alfred Richards Brick Company, as reported, dredged some material from the channel in front of their wharf, then building. The excavated material was deposited behind the bulkhead line by means of a hydraulic dredge. The deposited material served as filling for the wharf.

The United States Government has undertaken work at different times and through various periods since 1870 in improvement of Occoquan, Nomini, Lower Machodoc, and Aquia creeks, Virginia; James and Rappahannock rivers, Virginia; Milford Haven and Urbana Creek, Virginia; Patuxent River, Maryland; Breton Bay, Maryland; and York, Pamunkey and Mattaponi rivers, Virginia.

*

* *

The improvement of these waters by the United States has consisted in dredging channels through bars at their mouths, or at points farther up the bays, rivers, and creeks, and in some cases construction of jetties to protect the work and channel.

At Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock, the river is narrow, and the channels dredged through the bars at that point by the United States of necessity lie in front of and not distant from the wharves.

The improvement in Patuxent River is for Bristol Bar and embraces a cut through the bar and dredging a turning basin in front of the landing. The improvement for Breton Bay embraces dredging through bars and an enlargement in width of dredged channel, or a turning basin at the Leonardtown wharves. The improvement at Urbana Creek is of the same nature; the creek harbor in which dredging is done may be called partly landlocked.

Carters Creek, Virginia, has been, by act of Congress of June 13, 1902, added to the improvements. * *Dredging by the United

States is to be done at the entrance and within the harbor.

At Milford Haven, Virginia, dredging has been done on the bar at the entrance to the harbor and also within the harbor, and more is in contemplation, as authorized by act.

I add below quotation from Mr. Warman's report, already referred to, showing work by private parties in Occoquan Creek, etc.:

OCCOQUAN CREEK, VIRGINIA.

The upper two bars in this creek are sand bars and, being situated near the head of navigation, they receive constant deposits from freshets.

The channels through these bars have, however, been kept open by the dredging of sand by private parties, primarily for building purposes, the maintenance of the channels by such dredging being merely incidental.

QUANTICO CREEK.

An old canal cut through the marshes enters the creek about 3 miles above its mouth. This canal, which is supposed to have been dredged by private parties, is now very shoal, but is said to have been about 60 feet wide and 4 to 5 feet deep and to have extended up to Dumfries.

A small amount of dredging was done in the outer harbor of Quantico Creek by Fox Brothers, of Baltimore, about 1883, to provide a depth of 16 feet by a width of 40 feet from the Quantico wharf to deep water in Potomac River.

CARTERS CREEK, VIRGINIA.

A small amount of dredging was done in front of the marine railway in 1899. This work was of benefit to vessels using the railway only.

MILFORD HAVEN, VIRGINIA.

A channel was dredged through the bar at Milford Haven by the Maryland Steamboat Company in 1882 and again in 1887. The dimensions of the channels dredged are unknown.

YORK RIVER, VIRGINIA.

Some dredging was done in York River at Westpoint about 1900 by G. C. Guvernator for the purpose of obtaining material to reclaim land. This dredging was of no benefit to navigation.

PAMUNKEY RIVER, VIRGINIA.

Considerable dredging has been done, at various times, by the Southern Railway Company, in the channel in front of their wharves on the Pamunkey front of Westpoint, Va.

About 1890 Mr. W. A. Willeroy sunk a large scow adjacent to the right bank of the Pamunkey River at Rockford, with a view to contracting and deepening the channel. It however, failed to improve the existing conditions.