This conclusion is based upon the fact that the Cumberland River from the falls to Pineville has been turned over by the State to a private corporation, with the privilege of building bridges, locks, and dams, renting water-power, collecting toll, &c. This action of the State is probably based upon the theory that the Cumberland River above the falls is not "navigable water of the United States," and this view appears to be sustained by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. In the Montello Case that court decides that If a river is not of itself a highway for commerce with other States or foreign countries, or does not form such highway by its connection with other waters, and is only navigable between different places within the State, then it is not a navigable water of the United States, but only a navigable water of the State. The part of the Cumberland and the tributaries referred to are not only entirely within one State, but are separated from other navigable waters by a perpendicular fall of more than 50 feet, which absolutely prevents all kinds of navigation, even rafts of saw-logs at all stages of the water, and a plan for overcoming this obstruction by locks and dams having been laid before Congress, that body has declined to make any appropriation whatever for the purpose. The conclusion, therefore, seems justified that the State legislature of Kentucky, the United States Supreme Court, and Congress are in accord on this subject, and that, in view of the peculiar wording of the appropriation act in regard to surveys and examinations, no money should be expended for the survey or examination of the streams in question. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U. S. A. W. R. KING, Major of Engineers. Z 17. REPORT IN REFERENCE TO PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION WITH A VIEW TO PLACING LOCKS AND DAMS ON THE CUMBERLAND RIVER, FROM NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, TO THE CINCINNATI SOUTHERN RAILROAD IN KENTUCKY. UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, Chattanooga, Tenn., September 23, 1882. GENERAL: Referring to your letter of the 11th ultimo, relative to the proposed surveys of portions of the Cumberland River, between Nashville and the head of Smith's Shoals, I have the honor to state that there are available sufficient data from previous examinations and surveys upon which to make the preliminary report contemplated in the river and harbor bill, without incurring any further expense for preliminary examinations. No funds for that purpose will therefore be needed, unless it is held that a special examination is required by the language of the act, in which case the sum of $250 would be sufficient. From Nashville to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad in Kentucky (Point Burnside) the principal obstructions have been surveyed, and a nearly continuous survey was made from Wild Goose Shoals to the Kentucky line, a distance of about 89 miles, in 1872. "To make such survey and report as to the cost of placing locks and dams on the Cumberland River, from Nashville, Tenn., to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad in Kentucky, as, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, is necessary to complete the examination and report of said river; said report to be "First, as to the practicability of the work; "Second, its probable cost from Nashville to the Kentucky line; "Third, the cost from the Kentucky line to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad; "Fourth, the cost of locking and damming so as to improve Smith's Shoals," would therefore probably require only the survey of the river from the foot of Smith's Shoals to Wild Goose Shoals, a distance of about 45 miles, and from Celina Bar, near the Kentucky line, to Nashville, about 192 miles, Smith's Shoals having been surveyed and reported on at the last session of Congress, and probably after this item was introduced in the bill. As Congress has at various times appropriated large sums of money for the improvement of the Cumberland River, and as the river is now navigable by steamboats during the greater part of the year, there appears to be no doubt "that the said river is worthy of improvement and that the work is a public necessity." I would therefore respectfully recommend a survey in accordance with the foregoing suggestions be authorized, the cost thereof not to exceed $4,000. It is not thought necessary to make a complete topographical survey, but simply run lines of levels, and measure such distances, &c., as to ascertain the number and location of locks, length of dams, effect of overflow on adjoining lands, &c. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U. S. A. W. R. KING, Major of Engineers. SURVEY WITH A VIEW TO PLACING LOCKS AND DAMS ON THE CUMBERLAND RIVER FROM NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, TO THE CINCINNATI SOUTHERN RAILROAD IN KENTUCKY. UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, Chattanooga, Tenn., February 26, 1884. GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report on the survey on the Cumberland River from Nashville, Tenn., to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, Kentucky, made in compliance with your instructions of April 24, 1883, as follows: To make such survey and report as to the cost of placing locks and dams on the Cumberland River from Nashville, Tenn., to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad in Kentucky, as, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, is necessary to complete the examination and report of said river; said report to be First, as to the practicability of the work; Second, its probable cost from Nashville to the Kentucky line; Third, the cost from the Kentucky line to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad; The survey was begun at Point Burnside, the crossing of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, on the 15th of July last, and was extended to Nashville, a distance of 328 miles, and embraced a continuous line of levels and transit line with cross-sections, and soundings at the shoals and proposed lock sites. The field work of the survey was completed on the 1st November last, and it was intended that the maps also should be completed before the end of November, but it was found impracticable to do so, and they were not completed until last week. A survey of Smith's Shoals had already been made and reported upon, (Senate Ex. Doc. No. 132, Forty-seventh Congress, first session), so that nothing further was needed in that respect to furnish the information called for in the letter of instructions. It was found by the survey that the entire fall between Point Burnside and Nashville is 223 feet, or about 8 inches per mile, and that the general slope is quite uniform. The banks are sufficiently high in most cases to prevent overflow, and the river bed is generally rock, which would give secure foundation for the proposed locks. This river has heretofore been improved by means of wing dams and channel excavation, with a view to securing an increased depth of channel at medium stages of the river, but without attempting to secure a navigable depth at extreme low water, and while greatly facilitating navigation, it is evident that such a system of improvement is but a partial removal of the difficulty. It is quite likely that if the stages of the river could be known in advance, so that steamboats could take full advantage of all navigable boating-tides during the year, all the commerce of the Cumberland River could be carried on without a more radical system of improvement, but there would be several months of low water when all navigation would be suspended. Boats drawing from 24 to 30 inches can, in some seasons, run eight months during the year. The following table shows the average number of days per annum in the five years from 1876 to 1880, inclusive, when the river at Nashville stood at different levels on the gauge: One trouble in taking advantage of boating-tides is that many of them are of such short duration that boats would not have time to make the entire trip without danger of getting caught on the way, which would entail great expense, delay, and liability to damage perishable articles of freight. The proposed system of improvement by locks and dams will require twenty-three locks, with lifts varying from 6.5 to 11.8 feet at low water, with side walls sufficiently high in each location to permit boats to pass the locks until the water is high enough to allow them to pass over the dams. As it will require from 20 to 25 feet rise to enable boats to pass over the dams safely, it will be seen from the foregoing table that on an average the locks will be used about eleven months in the year, and during one month the boats will have to pass over the dams. It is proposed to build the locks of solid masonry and found them upon the rock. They should be about 60 feet wide and 250 feet between miter sills, though perhaps smaller dimensions would answer the purpose. There will be a dam required at each lock from 250 to 500 feet long, and these should be made of stone and timber with secure foundations. Each dam will back the water to the next lock above, a distance of from 8 to 19 miles, and give a depth of 5 feet on the lower miter sill. The questions suggested in the letter of instructions may be answered as follows, taking them in their order: 1. There is no doubt as to the practicability of the work. A very similar, but more difficult work, on account of bad foundations, has been successfully tested on the Kentucky River below Frankfort. 2. The probable cost, from Nashville to the Kentucky line, as estimated by Mr. Turrill, is.. $1,987, 536 3. The probable cost, from Kentucky line to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, he estimates at 1, 215, 386 Making a total of 4. The cost of locking and damming Smith's Shoals, as estimated in my report of February 15, 1882, is Which, added to the foregoing, makes....... The cost of operating the thirty locks, including seven at Smith's Shoals, will be about $1,200 per annum each, or $36,000, which, capitalized at 3 per cent., makes.... Making the entire expenditures involved in the project....... 3,202, 922 875,000 4,077, 922 1,200,000 5,277, 922 The prices, per unit of quantity, given in Mr. Turrill's estimate, are generally much lower than could probably be realized in conducting such work, especially when we consider that it is scattered along 328 miles of river, subject to sudden and heavy freshets, and that the annual appropriations for such works are generally scattered over eight or ten years of time. If undertaken, the work should be begun at Nashville, and extended up the river, so that the improvement can be utilized as fast as it is completed. This will benefit commerce, even on the upper river, more than to begin at two or more places, because the upper end of the improved river will always be the base from which boats can safely undertake hasty trips to the upper waters of the Cumberland and its tributaries, on short tides in summer. Any attempt to improve intermediate sections would not only add greatly to the cost of the work, but would delay its completion, and the detached locks and dams would be of no use until connected with the completed work below. As to whether this "improvement is proper to be made," it may be remarked that some more radical improvement of the Cumberland is evidently demanded by the interests of commerce; and if the necessary depth of water cannot be obtained without locks and dams the expenditure of $5,000,000 for building them may be justified. But before deciding this point, it is proper to inquire whether the same amount of money, or even a much smaller sum, may not provide a suffcient depth of water for all commercial purposes. It must also be borne in mind that the system of locks, even if completed in the most substantial manner, would not be an unmixed blessing, since they would at all times cause some delay, and accidents might occasionally stop naviga tion altogether for several days at a time; but at all times when the river is above, say, 15 feet at Nashville, navigation would be better without locks than with them. When the river at Nashville is above 10 feet, or about four months in each year, there is probably sufficient water for all purposes of navigation, so that the locks may be considered as desirable only eight months in the year, or two thirds of the time, while during the other third they would not only cause delay and expense for working, but would be practically unnecessary. 5908 EN- -105 As the average fall is only 8 inches per mile there would be no trouble about rapid currents if the slope could be made tolerably uniform, and the important question would be to get a sufficient depth of water. To determine whether this is practicable, the low-water discharge of the river was measured at three points, with the following results, viz: 1. Above the Kentucky and Tennessee State line, 850 cubic feet per second. 2. Above the mouth of Caney Fork, 1,100 cubic feet per second. 3. Near Nashville, 1,325 cubic feet per second. By computation it is found that, if the river at low water were confined in a channel 80 feet wide at bottom and with side slopes of 45 degrees at the shoal places, and the slope regulated by jetties or wingdams, these quantities of water will be sufficient to give a depth of 5 feet, 6 feet, and 7 feet at the points just mentioned. In other words, there will be plenty of water, if the width and slope are properly regulated, and this can be done by a suitable arrangement of brush and stone dams, so disposed as to narrow the channel at low water and cause the gravel to scour to the proper depth at the shoals and form deposits in the deep places, where it will not only be out of the way, but will assist in backing the water upon the shoal places. To those not familiar with the subject it might appear that this would simply be a continuation of the improvement on the present plan, and to a certain extent it would be; but it should be remembered that the existing project has cost only $277,000 for the entire improvement from Nashville to the head of Smith's Shoals, or less than one-nineteenth of what it is now proposed to apply to the same portion of the river. In order to compare the lock and dam system with the jetty system, which, by the way, is something like the original problem of improving the mouth of the Mississippi River, minus most of its difficult and experimental features, Mr. Turrill was directed to make an estimate of the cost of improving the worst, or most difficult, and the most favorable sections of the river, by jetties, with the following results: Worst section: With locks, $180,951; without locks, $268,700. The cost with locks includes the cost of operating, capitalized, as in the general estimate, and the figures show that in the worst section the locks would be about $88,000 cheaper, while in the best section they would cost $46,700 more than the jetties. It should also be taken into account that the building of jetties will not interfere at any time with the free navigation of the river, while the dams cannot be built without entirely stopping navigation for longer or shorter periods, according to the stage of water, floods, weather, appropriations, and other circumstances, under which they are built. In some cases it will evidently be better to build locks, while in others jetties will be more advantageous. I would, therefore, respectfully recommend that, if this improvement is undertaken by Congress, the following provisions be made: 1. That the appropriation be made without geographical limit, other than that it shall be applied to the "improvement of the Cumberland River above Nashville." 2. That in order to conduct the work on business principles, the first appropriation should be enough to complete at least three locks and dams next above Nashville, say $400,000. 3. That the law shall simply specify the depth of navigable channel to be secured, leaving it to the Secretary of War to adopt the plan of |