COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. The commercial statistics for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, have remained practically unchanged, and therefore those reported for the year 1890 are herein repeated. There were built on Newtown Creek 23 new vessels, 7,200 tons capacity, and valued at $265,000. E 8. IMPROVEMENT OF BUTTERMILK CHANNEL, NEW YORK HARBOR. Buttermilk Channel is the name given to the channel which separates Governors Island, at the mouth of the East River, New York Harbor, from the city of Brooklyn, which lies east of it. The channel on the northwest side of Governors Island, which separates it from the lower end of the city of New York, is the wider and deeper of the two, and is the channel most used by vessels passing between the East River and other parts of New York Harbor. Buttermilk Channel is obstructed by three shoals: 1. A shoal lying above and northeast of Governors Island, projecting into Buttermilk Channel, and extending over to the main channel on the other side, which originally had a least depth over it of 94 feet at mean low water. 2. A shoal putting out from Red Hook Point, on the Brooklyn side, and extending up to the eastern side of the channel to the entrance of the Atlantic Basin, with a least depth on it of about 5 feet at mean low water. 3. A shoal putting out from the southern side of Governors Island and extending towards the Red Hook Point Shoal, which is partly dry at mean low water. Between the first-mentioned shoal and Governors Island there was formerly a narrow channel with 30 feet of water in it, and between this shoal and the Brooklyn shore a channel of the same depth, also originally narrow. A narrow and crooked channel about 30 feet deep lies between the two latter shoals. The line of docks and wharves from the Brooklyn Bridge down to the mouth of the Atlantic Basin on the Brooklyn side is one of the most important in the New York Harbor, and this part of the river, extending from the Brooklyn Bridge to Governors Island, is regarded by pilots and masters of vessels as one of the most difficult places in New York waters to carry a vessel through safely on account of this shoal, the rapid current, and the enormous traffic passing not only up and down but across the stream. Tows, tugs, small steamers, and small craft generally in passing up and down this part of the East River keep to the New York side, foreing the larger class of sound steamers, ocean steamers, and seagoing ships in tow of tugs to keep over towards the shoal at the upper point of Governors Island, and if, as is often the case, these vessels are obliged to stop in order to avoid collision with ferryboats, sloops, and canal-boat tows they are liable to drift upon this shoal. Upon a statement of these difficulties, made by shipping merchants and others whose business lay along the Brooklyn wharves between Wall Street Ferry and the Atlantic Basin, a survey of this shoal was ordered in 1872 and a project for its improvement was adopted in 1880, The appropriations made by the several river and harbor acts from June 4, 1880, to August 11, 1888, both inclusive, have been applied towards the complete removal of this shoal to a depth of 26 feet mean low water at an estimated cost of $346,000. WORK DONE DURING THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1891. At the opening of the fiscal year a contract was in force with Mr. James A. Simmons, of New York, for the removal of 500,000 cubie yards of material from the shoal. This quantity, it was believed, was ample to provide against all contingencies of illicit dumpings and shoalings from natural causes to which the locality is subject, and to give a full depth of 26 feet mean low water everywhere over the shoal. Of this quantity 206,199 cubic yards had been removed prior to June 30, 1890, by which the southern end of the shoal had been lowered to the plane of 26 feet mean low water, and a north and south cut 450 feet wide had been excavated along the whole of the shoal. The dredge was withdrawn from the work December 3 and placed upon the contract for Gowanus Bay improvement, pending a resurvey of the Buttermilk Shoal to determine whether any further work was necessary there. Work was resumed on this shoal April 20, and has continued there uninterruptedly to the close of the year. The contract is still in progress, and the shoal has been removed to the plane of 26 feet, mean low water, except over a few points where the depth is slightly less. It is expected that the shoal will be entirely removed to the required de July 4. The quantity of material removed under the contract to date is 395,739 cubic yards. The contract calls for the removal of 500,000 cubic yards from the shoal, but the operations under the contract show that the shoal will not provide more than 400,000 cubic yards above the 26-foot curve. On the extension of the contract, March 31, 1890, the contractor was given the privilege of excavating the full contract quantity by removing part of the shoal at Red Hook Point, near Atlantic Basin, but, owing to the legal embarrassments under which the contractor now labors, which prevent him from giving the work his personal attention, notice has been given in writing by his attorney that the option will not be accepted, and that he will ask to have his contract closed on the completion of the work projected at the original shoal. The river and harbor act of September 19, 1890, provided for a survey of "Buttermilk Channel and Gowanus Bay Channels in New York Harbor, with a view of straightening the same by removing the shoals opposite the southeast side of Governors Island, protecting the channels by a sea wall on Governors Island, and to provide for the full width thereof a uniform depth of 26 feet at mean low water throughout these channels along the wharves of Brooklyn, from a point opposite Wall Street Ferry to the foot of Bryant street, Brooklyn." A report was submitted to the Chief of Engineers upon the survey October 17, 1890 (House Ex. Doc. No. 26, Fifty-first Congress, second session), in which it is stated that the "shoals opposite the southeast side of Governor Island" (Red Hook Shoal) contain 1,484,048 cubic yards of material, measured in place, and should be removed to the depth of 26 feet, mean low water, but that no sea wall on Governor Island would be needed to maintain the improved channel. The recommendation for the removal of Red Hook Shoal is here repeated; when this work is done Buttermilk Channel, opposite Atlantic Basin, will be 1,000 feet wide, and the set of the currents will be so direct along the southern margin of Governors Island that the improved depths will be maintained with reasonable certainty, without the necessity for an artificial bank to be built upon that island or upon the shoal extending from it to the southwestward. An appropriation of $200,000 is recommended towards the completion of this improvement, which is required to facilitate the navigation of the southern entrance to Buttermilk Channel, off Red Hook Point, now obstructed by a shoal reef. This work is in the collection district of New York. The nearest port of entry is New York City, and the nearest work of defense, Fort Columbus, New York Harbor. The nearest light-house is Robbins Reef. Amount expended to June 30, 1891, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, $321, 926. 56. ENG 91-58 July 1, 1891, amount covered by uncompleted contracts... $12, 471.79 19. 288.24 31,760.03 July 1, 1891, balance available 5,135.20 Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1893 200,000.00 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867. COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. The commercial statistics for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, have remained practically unchanged, and, therefore, those reported for the year 1890 are herein repeated. The commerce of Buttermilk Channel is so intimately connected with that of New York Harbor that it is impracticable to determine the amount and value. The number and tonnage of vessels loading and unloading at the Brooklyn wharves, immediately fronting on Buttermilk Channel, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, as shown by the Maritime Register, is as follows: This does not include the numerous lighters and canal boats, of which no record is kept. E 9. IMPROVEMENT OF GOWANUS BAY, NEW YORK. Gowanus Bay is a part of New York Harbor, lying at the mouth of Gowanus Creek, in the southeastern part of the city of Brooklyn. The depth of water in the channel was formerly 7 to 12 feet at mean low water, which was wholly insufficient for the passage of the vessels employed in the commerce of the district. A survey of Gowanus Bay and Creek was made in 1880, and a project for their improvement was submitted in January, 1881. This project provided for dredging a channel between the pier lines established by the commissioners appointed by the State of New York in 1875, beginning at the bay and extending up the creek to Hamilton Avenue Bridge, 18 feet deep at mean low water and 200 feet wide, except for the upper few hundred feet near the bridge, where the width was to be gradually reduced from 200 feet to 100 feet. The total length of the proposed channel was about 9,000 Feet. The estimated cost of this improvement was as follows: 530,000 cubic yards of dredging, at 30 cents per cubic yard....... Contingencies Total.... The proposed channel, however, did not follow the old channel at the mouth of the creek, since the pier line established by the State commission of 1865 crossed the old channel at that point and encroached upon the water grant of the riparian owners. The owners of this property, Messrs. Beard & Robinson, were anxious, nevertheless, to have the old channel improved instead of having the new one formed, as proposed, outside of the established pier line; but, as this could not be done, they surrendered their right to build out to the pier line; they signed a paper relinquishing their right to build piers which should obstruct the old channel so long as that channel should be permitted to exist; and the Maritime Association of New York at the same time petitioned that the old channel should be kept open. As the improvement of this channel would, however, help only the land near it on the north side, and not at all that which lay on the opposite or southerly side of the creek, the local officer recommended that the conflict of interest be settled by dredging the natural channel from the Hamilton Avenue Bridge down to the southwest corner of the Erie Basin; and that from that point two channels be dredged, one running northerly along the west side of the Erie Basin to deep water near Red Hook, and the other running southerly along the wharves on the south side of the bay towards Bay Ridge. Both of these channels were to be 200 feet wide and 18 feet deep at mean low water. This project required for its execution a larger amount of work than the original scheme called for, namely: The excavation of 583,530 cubic yards of material, which, at 30 cents per cubic yard, would cost.. Contingencies, 10 per cent.. Total $175, 059.00 17,505.90 192, 564.90 The legal measures necessary for securing the right of way across Beard & Robinson's property, at the mouth of the creek, were completed satisfactorily by May, 1883, and under appropriations of 1881, 1882, and 1883 the proposed Red Hook branch of the channel was dredged 100 feet wide for a length of 2,000 feet, measured from Red Hook, and the Southern Channel, running towards Bay Ridge, was begun at the southern end and carried northward for a distance of 1,900 feet, with depths in it varying from 21 to 17 feet, except for a few hundred feet at the upper end on the eastern side, where the last cut was left unfinished. The sum of $7,500 was appropriated by the act of August 5, 1886, and was applied towards the improvement of the Red Hook and Gowanus Creek Channel, which at the close of the contract for dredging, March 12, 1887, was 200 feet wide and 18 feet deep from the entrance to the foot of Court street, Brooklyn, and thence 40 feet wide and 15 feet deep to Sigourney street. A sketch of the work, June 30, 1885, may be found in the Annual Report Chief of Engineers for that year, Part I, page 672. Under the estimates of $192,564.90 only $72,500 had been appropriated to June 30, 1887. In the Annual Report for 1888, page 615, the local officer states that |