NArUEAL WATERWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES HARTS. 575 



The commerce in — 



1890 746,895 tons. 



1895 241,907 tons. 



1900 649,221 tons. 



1905 _ 1,000,316 tons. 



1910 2,105,820 tons. 



1912 2,204,794 tons, valued at $67,877,603. 



The success attending the op.ening of the mouth of this river in 

 the AtLantic Ocean has been very marked. This river, together with 

 the Columbia Kiver and several others on the Atlantic and Pacific 

 coasts, furnishes examples of a distinctly courageous treatment of 

 river mouths in the open sea. This method of applying twin jetties 

 of riprap to bar harbors has now been well tried, and is accepted 

 as an approved method of overcoming the obstruction caused by 

 streams and tides at the mouths of rivers emptying into tidal seas. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



In conclusion, it might be well to summarize some of the more notice- 

 able tendencies in our interior natural waterways. First, one is struck 

 at once with the enormous increase in the commerce of the Great 

 Lakes between the western end of Lake Superior and the harbors of 

 northern Ohio. In spite of all efforts, it seems almost impossible to 

 maintain facilities much in advance of the needs of navigation. New 

 and larger locks at the " Soo," new and deeper channels in Lake 

 Huron are scarcely complete before deeper boats and more perfect 

 terminal facilities make these waterways inadequate to the new de- 

 mands. Notwithstanding the several months of idleness in the win- 

 tertime, when ice stops all navigation, the tonnage carried has in- 

 creased year by year until it has been necessary to have separate 

 channels for upbound from those used for downbound vessels, and 

 very much more than double the lock capacity at St. Marys Rapids. 

 The new and extensive projects for the accommodation of this traffic 

 seem well justified. 



Second, it seems deeply' disappointing to see nearly all of the 

 rivers of the Mississippi Valley either conspicuously declining in 

 traffic or, in a few cases, holding their own with much difficulty. Not- 

 withstanding the adoption of the best type of locks and movable 

 dams, the most modern and effective open river work, and the aid 

 afforded by the Government in improving the shallow-draft river 

 steamboats, notwithstanding huge appropriations and extensive work 

 of the highes-t engineering skill, notwithstanding the enormous in- 

 crease within recent years in every branch of industry in this wide 

 area, these rivers have declined in usefulness and importance; their 

 freight has been extensively taken over by the railroads of this 

 region; boating has dwindled as a business until the Mississippi 

 Eiver itself— a stream unequalled in possibilities— now flows idly 



