measurement was 2,363 feet; the North Dike had been completed for a length of 809 feet; and the shoal in front of Sheffield's paper mill had been dredged to afford a channel 50 feet wide and 7 to 8 feet deep. The channel across the bar was 200 feet wide and 9 feet deep, mean low water. The amount expended during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $5,021.04, and was applied towards the construction of 1,270 feet of piled dike on the north side of the creek. The existing navigable depth from the entrance to the head of navi gation is 9 feet, mean low water, in a channel from 100 to 300 feet wide. July 1, 1890, balance unexpended Amount appropriated by act approved September 19, 1890 June 30, 1891, amount expended during fiscal year... July 1, 1891, balance unexpended July 1, 1891, outstanding liabilities July 1, 1891, amount covered by uncompleted contracts.. $1,977.35 July 1, 1891, balance available (Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project........ Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1893 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and barbor acts of 1866 and 1867. (See Appendix E 2.) $721.93 10,000.00 10, 721.93 3,043. 69 7,678. 24 5,056. 18 2, 622.06 10,000.00 5,000.00 3. Harbor at Rondout, New York. This harbor is formed by the mouth of Rondout Creek, which empties into the Hudson River on its west side about 90 miles above the city of New York, and is the eastern terminus of the Delaware and Hudson Canal. The creek is a tidal stream for 3 miles above its mouth, and prior to 1871 all improvements had been made by private parties. The Government made a survey of the harbor in 1869, and the available depth of water then in the channel was only 7 feet at mean low water. The project of improvement, based on this survey, was for the formation and maintenance of a channel 100 feet wide and 14 feet deep, mean low water, at the mouth of the creek, to be obtained by means of dikes and dredging. Two parallel channel dikes, 350 feet apart at the entrance, were to be built outward, toward and into the Hudson River, and a branch dike up stream to protect the north dike against destruction by ice. The estimated cost of the project was $172,500. The project was completed in 1880 at an actual cost of $90,000 only. At that time the length of the north dike was 2,200 feet, and that of the south dike 2,800 feet, and there was a channel between them 50 feet wide and 13 feet deep, mean low water, and 100 feet wide and 12 feet deep, mean low water. The appropriations which have been made since 1880 have been applied exclusively to the repair of the dikes. The amount expended upon the project and upon repairs up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, was $101,500, at which date the navigable channel was 100 feet wide and from 12 to 13 feet deep, mean low water. The dikes were built originally of timber and stone to the height of mean high water, but the timber has since become so damaged by age and by the ice that the stone filling in many places has fallen out from between the rows of piles, and the height of the dikes has been correspondingly lowered. No funds were expended upon this improvement during the past fiscal year. Sealed proposals will be opened July 16, for the work contemplated by the project for the expenditure of the appropriation of $5,000, act of September 19, 1890. The work to be done consists of repairs to all the dikes where the stone has settled or the waves undermined foundations. When the proposed repairs are completed, the dikes will be in fair condition. Amount appropriated by act approved September 19, 1890 $5,000.00 5,000.00 20,000.00 Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project. (See Appendix E 3.) 4. Wappinger's Creek, New York.-Wappinger's Creek is a small stream which empties into the Hudson River on left bank, one-half mile below the village of New Hamburg, N. Y. The navigable portion, extending from the mouth to Wappinger's Falls, is 2 miles long, approximately, and affords navigation to small boats drawing not exceeding 6 feet in a water way which has a width varying from 25 feet to 75 feet. The project for its improvement contained in the report upon the survey November 11, 1889, to comply with the river and harbor act, August 11, 1888, contemplates a channel 80 feet wide and 8 feet deep from the mouth to the falls. The estimated cost of the improvement was $13,000. The amount appropriated by the river and harbor act, September 19, 1890, was $13,000. The work was advertised according to law and the sealed proposals received in answer thereto were publicly opened November 19, 1890, and being excessive in price were all rejected. It was readvertised June S, 1891, and sealed proposals will be again opened July 16, 1891. Amount appropriated by act approved September 19, 1890. June 30, 1891, amount expended during fiscal year.. $13,000.00 80.33 12, 919.67 July 1, 1891, balance unexpended.... (See Appendix E 4.) 5. Harlem River, New York.-The Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek are both included in this improvement. The head of navigation in the former is practically at the High Bridge, about 5 miles from its junction with the East River; in the latter at Kingsbridge, about 13 miles from the Hudson River, for vessels of 8 feet draft, at high water only. The object of the improvement is to form a navigable channel between the East and Hudson Rivers. The project for the improvement as originally adopted in 1875 was for a channel 350 feet wide and 15 feet deep at mean low water. In 1879 the project was so far modified as to increase the width of the channel in the Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek to 400 feet, and retaining the original width of 350 feet through Dyckman Meadow, but increasing the depth to 18 feet, mean low water. This project was revised in 1886 by narrowing the channel immediately north of High Bridge, where it skirts the Ogden estate on the east bank, to a least width of 375 feet. The estimated cost of the work was $2,700,000; the amount expended upon the improvement up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30,1890, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $367,060.22. At that date the excavation of the canal prism had been carried down to grade at the eastern end of the cut west of Kingsbridge road for a length of 317 feet, measured along the axis of the canal, and to nearly the full width of the channel; and at the western end for a length of 438 feet and width of 124 feet, giving a total area of 146,110 square feet, where the excavation had reached grade; over a large additional area the general level of the surface had been reduced to a plane but a few feet above grade. The dam to the east of the Kingsbridge road, to keep out the waters of the Harlem River from the cut, had been completed, the site of the work drained, and the removal of material under the second contract had been begun. The amount expended during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $121,544.79. At that date the excavation of the section of canal prism lying to the west of old Kingsbridge road was carried down to grade over an area of 57,465 square feet, giving a total area of 203,575 square feet where the excavation has reached grade, and completing the section of the cut to be excavated under the contract of December 15, 1887, with the exception of a core of rock left standing in the center of the excavation for temporary use as a roadway, and a spur of rock in the southwest end over which the tramway for transporting the broken stone to the dumping ground passes. Both these ledges cover an area of 42,000 square feet, and are now in process of removal. The old Kingsbridge road, where it crosses the canal, has been closed, and the material composing it excavated down to the underlying rock surface, and a temporary roadway over the east dam has been opened to public traffic. The earth, turf, aud meadow sod between the east dam and the westerly limit of the contract of August 5, 1889, has been nearly all excavated down to grade, and the rock excavation begun and grade reached over an area of 600 square feet. Nearly all the rock to be removed under the contract of March 9, 1891, has been stripped of earth, and the excavation in the rock has been carried down to grade over an area of 1,400 square feet. The dredging in the Harlem River began near Fordham foot-bridge, and was carried northward towards Kingsbridge in a water way of 600 feet long, 75 to 150 feet wide, and 9 feet deep, at mean low water. The quantity removed to the close of the fiscal year was 40,204 cubic yards. The contract for work west of west dam was not begun. July 1, 1890, balance unexpended.......... June 30, 1891, amount expended during fiscal year.. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended ... July 1, 1891, outstanding liabilities July 1, 1891, amount covered by uncompleted contracts.... July 1, 1891, balance available 321,796.65 20, 502.30 1,980,000.00 Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project. (See Appendix E 5.) 6. Removing obstructions in East River and Hell Gate, New York.Hell Gate is the worst obstruction in the narrow strait connecting Long Island Sound with New York Harbor, known as the East River. At this point the channel turns at right angles around Halletts Point, opposite the mouth of the Harlem River, and the current runs with a velocity varying at different stages of the tide from 3 to 10 miles an hour over or around Way Reef, Pot Rock, Shell Drake, Frying Pan, Halletts Point, Negro Point, Holmes Rock, Hogs Back, Heel Tap, Flood Rock, Hen and Chickens, Gridiron, Mill Rocks, the Negro Heads, Rhinelander Reef, and Bread and Cheese. Besides these most serious obstructions there are many other rocks and reefs in the East River, especially those off the Battery, off Thirtythird Street, Charlotte Rock, Shell Reef, off Tenth Street, and Middle Ground, off Sunken Meadows, which are dangerous to its crowded navigation, and which ought to be removed. Originally the channel of East River and Hell Gate contained many large and dangerous rocky obstructions to navigation. The depth over Diamond Reef at mean low water was 171⁄2 feet; over Coenties Reef, 14.3 feet; over Frying Pan, 11 feet; over Pot Rock, 20 feet; over Heel Tap, 12.1 feet, and over reef at North Brothers Island, 16 feet. Halletts Point projected from the shore at Astoria under water 325 feet to the contour of 26 feet at mean low water and embraced an area of about 3 acres. The Middle Reef, with an area of about 9 acres, lay in the middle of the channels at Hell Gate. It had a small backbone projecting above high water, called Flood Rock, upon which vessels were stranded when driven there by the ebb currents which swept directly over the rock. The project originally adopted in 1867 provided for the removal of the rocks and reefs that lay directly in the channel at Hell Gate to a depth of 26 feet at mean low water, and for the building of sea walls and dikes upon others that lay near the edge of the channel. Tue cost of the project was estimated at $8,692,645.15 (Annual Report Chief of Engineers, 1868, page 741); this estimate was revised in 1870 and the cost placed at $4,689,820. The estimate was again revised in 1874 to include the removal of Diamond and Coenties reefs, and the total cost fixed at $5,139,120 (Annual Report Chief of Engineers, 1874, Part II, page 164). It provided for the removal at Hell Gate to a depth of 26 feet mean low water, of the reef at Halletts Point, Way Reef, Shell Drake, Pot Rock, Frying Pan, Heel Tap, Negro Point, and Flood Rock, including the Gridiron, Hen and Chickens, and Negro Heads, and for the construction of a dike to connect the Mill Rocks, and sea walls upon Hogs Back and Holmes Rock; and in other parts of the East River for the removal of Diamond and North Brothers Island reefs to a depth of 26 feet; Coenties Reef to a depth of 25 feet; and the small rocks known as Scaly Rock, Blackwell Rock, and rock off Woolsey's bath house. The project was enlarged in 1884 to include the removal of Pilgrim Rock, off Nineteenth street, and again in 1889 to include the removal of the reef off Diamond Reef, reef off Thirty-third street, and Charlotte Rock, northwest of entrance to Newtown Creek, and in 1890, to include the removal of Shell Reef off Ninth street, and Middle Ground opposite Sunken Meadows. The amount expended up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $3,814,644.84. At that date Halletts Point, covering 3 acres, Way Reef, Shell Drake, Diamond Reef, North Brother's Island Reef, Coenties Reef, and Scaly Rock had been removed to the depth contemplated in the project. Pilgrim Rock had been reduced to a least depth of 24 feet; Heel Tap had been broken to 26 feet and dredged to 20.5 feet, and the least depths on Frying Pan and Pot Rock were 18 feet and 22.8 feet at mean low water, respectively; the reef off Thirty-third street had been lowered. from a least depth of 7.1 feet to a least depth of 19 feet, and 1,744 tons of rock had been removed from reef off Diamond Reef. Flood Rock and connecting reefs, covering 9 acres, had been broken to 30 feet, and 132,464 tons of the débris had been removed; the Negro Heads and Hen and Chickens had been reduced to 18 feet, mean low water, and a new 18 foot channel, 500 feet wide, had been opened across the reef Sea walls had been built by the Government to connect Great and Little Mill Rocks, and by the city authorities on Bread and Cheese. These results have been of the greatest value to navigation. The amount expended during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $100,064.30, and was applied in removing, by hired labor, 24,040 tons of broken stone from Flood Rock, by the use of the two United States engineer dredges, in removing 2,737 tons of rock by use of the United States steam drill scow from reef off Diamond Reef, and in removing under contract 3,435 cubic yards of material and 960 tons of bowlders from Shell Reef off Ninth street. July 1, 1890, balance unexpended Amount appropriated by act approved September 19, 1890 $95, 286. 28 200,000.00 295, 286. 28 91,708. 39 203,577.89 June 30, 1891, amount expended during fiscal year.... July 1, 1891, balance unexpended July 1, 1891, outstanding liabilities $8,355.91 July 1, 1891, amount covered by uncompleted contracts..... 55, 528.57 63, 884.48 139, 693. 41 July 1, 1891, balance available..... Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project..... 1,038.840.67 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. (See Appendix E 6.) 7. Newtown Creek, New York.-This is a tidal stream about 4 miles long, running through the eastern part of Brooklyn, and emptying into the East River opposite Thirty-fourth street, New York City. It had formerly a depth of 12 feet, mean low water, at the mouth, gradually decreasing to 4 feet at the head. The original project for its improvement, adopted in 1880, but modified in 1883, provided for a channel 200 feet wide and 21 to 22 feet deep, mean low water, extending from the mouth up to Vernon Avenue Bridge, and from that point up to the head of navigation on both branches, a channel decreasing from 175 feet to 100 feet in width, and from 18 feet to 10 feet in depth, at an estimated cost of $255,569. The amount expended up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, inclusive of outstanding liabilities, was $101,965.52. At that date the channel below Vernon Avenue Bridge was 60 feet wide and 21 feet deep, mean low water; from Vernon Avenue Bridge to Central Oil Works the channel was 80 feet wide and 18 feet deep, mean low water, and the shoal opposite Queens County Oil Works had |