Congressional Serial Set Volume 2710

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 Excerpt: ...bars and. shoals instead of using spur-jetties, as had been done previously. Under this system the United States constructed two dikes in 1835, 1836, 1837, and 1838. Then followed a long interval of time in which nothing was done by the United States, except in 1852; but in 1863 the State of New York took up the improvement on the general plan adopted by the United States in 1831, viz, substituting a system of longitudinal dikes instead of the jetty system, and between 1863 and 1867 built six important longitudinal dikes of this kind. (Annual Report of 1S85, page 678.) The work was taken up again by the United States in 1864, when, ont of the general sum appropriated for river and harbor improvement, $33,000 was allotted for the Hudson River Improvement, and this was followed by the act of June 23, 1866, which appropriated $50,000 for the same work. The plans under which the present works of improvement of the river are conducted were adopted in 1866, and provided for securing a navigable channel 11 feet deep at mean low water from New Baltimore up to Albany, and 9 feet deep at mean low water from Albany up to Troy. The following is a description of the plan: First. A system of longitudinal dikes to confine the current sufficiently to allow the ebb and flow of the tidal current to keep the channel clear. These dikes to be gradually brought nearer together from New Baltimore towards Troy, so as to assist the entrance of the flood current and increase its height, their height to be kept approximately at the level of the tidal high water, so as not to confine the freshets; the exact level, however, being left to be determined by experience as the work progresses. Second. That the dredge be used so tar as necessary to open the channels above described, which th...