Evening Journal

About to Be Promoted—Other Events of the Day.

Special Correspondence Evening Journal.

New Castle. Sept. 29—There is strong probability now that dredging machines will dot the Delaware river and bay above and below this city for several miles, before another year has rolled around. Philadelphia's enterprising business men are making a strong fight for money to deepen the lower Delaware and their efforts, if continued at the present rate, are sure to bring about good results.

It seems that six serious obstructions to navigation have been found in the lower Delaware—Mifflin bay, Schooner Ledge, Cherry Island Flats, Bulkhead Bar, Baker Shoal and Duck Creek Flats. Of these the last two—Dan Baker Shoal, over which the mean low water stands at only about 20 feet, and Duck Creek Flats, near Bombay Hook, where the river is not more than 19 feet deep—have never been disturbed from their original state. At the Cherry Island Flats, which lie in midstream just above the mouth of the Christian river, the western channel had been dredged to a depth varying from 25 to 27 feet, with 400 feet width. The channel had been dredged to 24 feet, however, previous to 1885. Only $100,000 was spent upon this later improvement. Shoaling has already been discovered in the lower part of this cut, the depth now ranging only from 10 to 21 feet for a distance of 400 feet.

Bulkhead Bar, about three miles above Fort Delaware, has been the most marked obstruction to commerce seeking navigation to this port. In its original unimproved condition the shoal carried only from 20 to 21 feet at mean low water. Despite repeated dredgings, the deepened channel over the bar invariably returned to its old level. An east dike has since been built from the upper end of Pea Patch Island up the stream in a curved line parallel to the Jersey shore. Its total length is 4,000 feet. The channel across the bar now possesses a minimum depth of 24 feet, with a least width of 350 feet, and even a depth of 20 feet, with about 100 feet width. The channel has shoaled, however, opposite the shore end of the dike to 25.1 feet. The shoals have advanced up stream and towards the channel, threatening its permanency. It was here that the cruiser Columbia is thought to have met with her mishap in June last.

Commenting on the progress of this movement to improve, the Philadelphia Record says: "It is generally admitted, however, that a double appropriation of $500,000 for the two successive years of 1895 and 1896 would wonderfully expedite the work of improvement on Philadelphia's ocean outlet, and would probably stimulate Congress to break away from the snail's pace with which progress on the Delaware has so long been marked."