The Hudson an Integral Part of State Waterway System -- Deeper Hudson Project Springs from Barge Canal -- Close Relationship between Canal and Proposed Deepening -- Congested Port at New York Furnishes Reason for Project -- Other Inland Seaports -- Arguments Advanced: Favorable Terminal and Factory Sites at Head of River Navigation: Best Distributing Point on Atlantic Slope: Commerce Already Large and Likely to Increase Enormously: Improvement Needed by Interior Points: Easily Accomplished: Railroad and Steamship Efforts Unavailing: Other Port Facilities Inadequate and Expensive to Increase: Water Transportation Cheapest: Improvement Feasible from Engineering and Commercial Standpoints: Saving on Rates Would Pay for Undertaking -- Attitude of People of Capitol District -- Present Status of Project -- The Scheme One of National Significance.

The terminus of the Barge canal nearest to the ocean is still one hundred and fifty miles away. In the bed of the Hudson river at Waterford lie the eastern end of the Erie branch and the southern end of the Champlain branch. From this point of junction the Federal government has carried the canal about five miles down the Hudson to Troy. So far as work done by either State or Federal authorities on the project known as the Barge canal is concerned it ends at Troy. The condition of the channel in the Hudson south from Troy, therefore, is all-important to the New York canals. As a matter of fact this portion of the Hudson is really an integral part of the State waterway system, but until recently it has not been customary so to regard it, and moreover even yet the Barge canal is considered as ending at Troy. Whatever improvements have been made below Troy are looked upon as separate schemes.

Tidal navigation extends all the way up the Hudson to Troy. As far north as the city of Hudson the river has a depth of at least twenty-three feet, but above that point it becomes shallower and as a result artificial improvements have been necessary. Until 1891 the State made whatever improvements were attempted. Then the United States assumed control. The work it has done to improve navigation has been considerable in extent and among its undertakings has been a channel equal in depth to that of the Barge canal.

Growing out of Barge canal construction, however, there sprang up an agitation for a much deeper channel in the Hudson, deep enough in fact to accommodate ocean vessels. The sponsors for the movement were the cities near the head of navigation, Albany and Troy chiefly. At first these two cities were working at cross-purposes; Albany wanted the deep channel to stop at its own waterfront, lest it should not reap the full benefit of being the transfer point, while Troy was not satisfied with anything less than a full depth channel to the dam which stood both at the head of tidal navigation and at the southerly end of the Barge canal. Later these divergent aims were pooled, and out of this common desire there has grown a community of interests which include many other public objectives as well and affect a widened circle of territory, one embracing Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Cohoes, Waterford, Watervliet, Green Island and Rensselaer, and come to be known as the Capitol District.

This project for a "Deeper Hudson," as it is called, has gained wide publicity and also a backing of considerable strength. It is an enterprise which falls under Federal jurisdiction and as yet has not reached the stage of authorization. But although the scheme was launched early in the period of Barge canal construction the interested cities have still retained their zeal and year after year their delegates have attended the conventions of the State Waterways Association, the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association and the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, and these bodies have as regularly given the project their recognition and endorsement.

Albany and Troy took the lead in championing a river channel deepened for ocean vessels, but early in their campaign they gained added strength through enlisting other Hudson river cities in the enterprise. There resulted an organization known as the Hudson River Improvement Association, which advocated a 22-foot channel in the Hudson as far north as the end of the Barge canal. Subsequently the depth of channel sought was increased to 27 feet.

It readily appears that the relationship between the Barge canal and a Deeper Hudson is very intimate. Since together they would constitute an important connecting link between the Great Lakes system of waterways on the one hand and the chain of intracoastal canals on the other, the project assumes a national or even an international aspect. The State and its various officials have given the enterprise their approval. If ocean vessels could meet canal craft at Albany or Troy, the whole scheme of canal traffic would be greatly altered. In any study of the Barge canal, therefore, it becomes necessary to know the essential facts in regard to the proposed deepening of the Hudson and also the reasons which have been put forth in support of the demands made upon the Federal government for performing the work.

It cannot be gainsaid of course that the promoters of this scheme were influenced primarily by a desire to advance the welfare of their own communities, but the insufficient terminal facilities and the resulting congestion in all commerce at New York city formed the foundation on which to build this framework of an inland seaport. Conditions in New York were already serious and the outlook at that time did hold any hope for adequate future improvement. Students of transportation declared that with the opening of the Panama canal New York was in position to become the supreme seaport of the world, the meeting place of commerce from the East and the West, from the cities of North and South America, from the Orient and Europe, the great point of transshipment in the Occidental and Oriental trade. With these conditions and this prospect in view the advocates of a seaport at the head of tidal navigation laid their plans and advanced their arguments.

Such an inland seaport was not without precedent. Europe furnished several examples. There was Manchester, which was reached through a ship canal thirty-five miles long, on which there were five sets of locks. Its commerce had grown from nothing to large proportions. Hamburg was about eighty-five miles from the sea. The improvement of the Elbe river made it a seaport and ships from all the ports of the world were reaching its docks. Amsterdam, at one time the greatest port in the world, was an inland port about seventeen miles from the ocean and was reached by a canal which had a lock at the sea entrance.

In order that a locality may become an important port it must have at least the following three qualifications: Its topography must be such as to permit the development of large docks, terminals and transshipping yards; it must have good distributing facilities by either rail or water or both; it must have a rich hinterland with either a commerce already developed or one that can be developed by the proposed improvement. The Capitol District, so the promoters held, possessed all of these advantages.

In substantiation of these and other claims the sponsors have conducted a campaign of education , publishing literature from time to time. A few transcripts or summaries from these pamphlets best contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the whole project and will also reveal the arguments in its behalf. The following discussion is such a summary.

In the Capitol District there at least ten square miles of cheap, flat, bottom lands lying adjacent to railroad terminals and well situated for docks and factory sites. Terminal charges would be much lower here than in New York, where land values are excessively high.

The district is unusually well provided with shipping facilities, being a railway and canal center. Here meet the important lines from the west, east, north and south. The Boston and Albany, the Boston and Maine and the Delaware and Hudson railroads reach into New England and Canada; the New York Central four-track road and the West Shore double-track line connect with the Great Lakes and the Middle West, also with New York city; the Delaware and Hudson extends into the coal fields of Pennsylvania; the district has more freight and passenger trains daily than Buffalo, showing its importance as a railway center. Here meet the eastern terminus of Erie canal and the southern terminus of the Champlain canal. No other point on the Atlantic slope is so favorably situated as a distributing center for commerce destined for the Great Lakes and the north central states by either rail or water.

The commerce of this locality is already important both in tonnage and value, the amount available for river transportation exceeding the accommodations offered and being diverted in part to other channels. The commerce in the river would be enormously increased by the Barge canal. Northern New York is already a very important manufacturing district and this territory is yet far from being developed. The Capitol District is capable of large development. Contemplated water-power installations would furnish ten times the amount of power already used, making possible the building up of a vast manufacturing center. It possesses unusual advantages for becoming a large lumber-distributing mart. With sea-going vessels reaching its ports this district would become the natural outlet for all Canadian trade with South America and Pacific ocean points and might attract much other Canadian commerce.

To allow the country at large and especially the region between the Mississippi river and the Atlantic seaboard to reap the benefit of the Panama canal, sea-going vessels should penetrate to the terminus of the Barge canal.

Terminal at Troy, the point of transfer with New England. A full portal steam crane is shown, This is equipped with a lifting magnet. At the dockwall lies a barge carrying steel rails, which are being transferred by means of the magnet. There are rail connections at this terminal with the Boston and Maine and the New York Central railroads.

The Hudson is a natural arm of the sea, navigable for 120 miles of its length to most ocean-going vessels. In this portion it has a width of at least 600 feet and generally is much wider. The improvement of the remaining thirty miles would involve for the most part soft excavation at light cost. The stream is tidal and requires no lock and there would be no question of adequate water supply.

Railroad and steamship companies had done their utmost to hasten shipments from producer to consumer, having built great terminals and increasing enormously the rate of speed, only to have their efforts largely made void by the delays due to congestion.

The port facilities along the Hudson and especially at New York city were inadequate and the cost of providing suitable facilities at New York was so high as to be almost prohibitive. The cost of a single pier there would build a whole system of terminals in the Capitol District. Even if these facilities were provided, the question of rail transportation to interior points was still unsolved.

As haulage by rail costs ten times as much as by water, a seaport 150 miles inland would effect a considerable saving, since the distance by rail to interior points would be materially lessened.

The project of deepening the Hudson to 27 feet was entirely feasible and presented no difficult engineering features. The cost of maintenance and operation would be exceptionally low for a scheme of that nature. No unusual hazards to sea-going ships would be found in navigating this river and it was possible to make a channel of greater width than common for canalized rivers. A large part of the freight originating at points along the Great Lakes could be brought to the Hudson by water without breaking bulk. Large shippers and ship-builders were already working on designs of steel vessels that could use the barge canal and yet be seaworthy on the Lakes. Freight handled thus could be brought to the Hudson for about one-tenth of what the railroads would charge. After reaching the Hudson the goods destined for export could be handled more cheaply on vessels of deeper draft.

The saving in freight charges on freight destined to interior points would be large and as the amount of freight affected by this saving was immense the resulting benefit to the country would be enough to pay many times the total cost of the undertaking.

Such are the arguments which have been advanced by the friends of a Deeper Hudson. The press of the Capitol District has been most persistent in its advocacy of the project, never letting an opportunity escape for upholding the cause in strong editorial or pertinent comment. As a result the people of the region are arrayed in almost solid ranks for its support.

It will be noticed that some of the arguments advanced by the Deeper Hudson advocates do not accord with the principle underlying the Barge canal theory, namely, that a transfer of freight from lake to canal boat, each designed especially for its own particular channel, is more sound economically than a shipment without transfer on a boat which tries to navigate successfully both types of channel.

The Federal government seems to have taken the stand which its engineers assumed several years ago in reporting on this project, namely, that although this river is a very important waterway and at some time it will be advisable to deepen it to at least 27 feet, for the present nothing should be done.

The citizens of New York state have long felt that their treatment at the hands of Congress in the matter of appropriations for river and harbor improvements is far from just, that more than five or six per cent of the total of such appropriations is deserved for supplying the facilities to handle one-half of all the foreign commerce of the country. The exports and imports which pass through New York are not simply of local concern; they affect the whole nation. So too the Deeper Hudson is a scheme of national significance. In spite of long delay its advocates are still hopeful that eventually their desires will be realized.