MUSCOGEE COUNTY. 445 



Harris, Talbot, Stewart, Marion, and Randolph counties in 

 Georgia, and a portion of Eastern Alabama. There are gene- 

 rally about sixteen steamboats plying between Columbus and 

 the bay. These boats on an average carry about 900 bales of 

 cotton. Freights vary according to the state of the river and 

 quantity of cotton on hand. Seventy-five cents per bale is 

 the usual freight to Appalachicola. Insurance three-quarters 

 percent. The boats run from the 1st of November to the 1st 

 of June. There is a handsome bridge over the river belonging 

 to the corporation of Columbus, which cost 840,000, and yields 

 an annual income of $10,000. No place in the United States 

 possesses greater advantages for manufacturing purposes than 

 Columbus. Capt. Hall, of England, during his visit to this 

 town, observed that the value of its water power could not be 

 estimated. The present improvements of this water power 

 were commenced in the spring of 1845 by the Water Lot 

 Company, composed of four persons, and which has since 

 been incorporated by the Legislature of Georgia. There are 

 thirty-six building lots, one half of which are improved by a 

 large canal, or aqueduct, built of granite, with walls 9 feet 

 thick, and 1130 feet long; and an average width of 90 feet 

 between the walls. 



Columbus is destined to become one of the largest 

 manufacturing towns in the southern country. The citizens 

 have been aroused to a sense of their advantages, and have 

 invested considerable capital in manufactures. Should the 

 railroad, designed to connect Columbus with the Macon and 

 Western Railroad at Barnesville, ever be completed, it will 

 place her on the line of northern and southern travel, open a 

 communication with Macon, Savannah, Augusta, and Charles- 

 ton ; and upon the completion of the Tennessee road, it 

 will afford the most expeditious route from Nashville to 

 New Orleans. 



Manufactures. — As has already been stated, this county 

 possesses great facilities for manufacturing purposes. The 

 effective fall of the Chattahoochee at Columbus is 14 feet ; 

 the length of the dam is 500 feet, and the depth of the water 

 on the dam at usual low water mark is 16 inches, — which, by 

 calculation, shows that 2620 cubic feet of water per second 

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