F 2. IMPROVEMENT OF CANARSIE BAY, NEW YORK. The first survey of this bay with a view to its improvement was made in 1879. The scheme of improvement involved a channel 6 feet deep at mean low water and 100 to 150 feet wide, extending from the shore at Canarsie Landing to the navigable channel in Jamaica Bay, a distance of about 3,500 feet. It was thought that the channel might be maintained by the construction of two pile-dikes forming a tidal reservoir. The estimated cost under this project was $88,000. The rise and fall of the tide is 4.7 feet and the minimum low-water depth at present existing in the channel is 5.9 feet. A detailed history of the work will be found in the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1887, Part I, p. 637. At present a portion, 1058 feet in length, of the north dike has been constructed, and in January, 1888, bids were invited by public advertisement for constructing 1,000 feet of the south dike, and a contract formed on February 25 of the same year with Stephen A. Kelly for the construction of 850 feet of this dike, at $9.87 per linear foot, it being necessary to reduce the projected length to some extent in order to retain funds for the necessary dredging in the spring. Work was begun May 2, 1888, and was in progress at the close of the fiscal year (see Annual Report, 1888). The date of expiration of this contract was July 1, 1888, but it was subsequently extended to August 3, at which date the contract was closed, 820 feet of dike having been constructed. The extreme width of this dike is 5 feet and its height 2 feet above mean high water. The piles used in its construction are of oak, and at the last inspection, May, 1889, the structure was in fairly good condition. Work A special agreement dated October 31, 1888, was made with Brainard Bros. for dredging a channel 100 feet wide and 6 feet deep at mean low water from Canarsie Landing to deep water of Jamaica Bay, the stipulated price being 224 cents per cubic yard, scow measurement. was begun under this agreement November 20, 1888, and concluded February 27, 1889, the total number of cubic yards removed being 33,320. The resulting channel is 100 feet wide and 6 feet deep at mean low water between the points indicated above, except for a short distance where the width is but 50 feet. In addition to this a cut 100 feet in length 50 feet in width and 6 feet deep was made on the east side of the steam-boat landing at Canarsie for the convenience of the steamboats in turning. In the project submitted for the expenditure of the appropriation of $10,000, made under the act of August 11, 1888, it was recommended that $1,500 be expended in repairing the north dike. An examination of the channel and dike in the early part of April of this year shows that the channel has remained practically unchanged during the past winter and that $400 or $500 will place the dike in good order. It was therefore recommended that $1,000 of the fund reserved for repairs and extension of the dike be expended in dredging a cut at the end of the wharf at Canarsie Landing and extending it through to the southwest to connect with the southwest channel. This recommendation, which was made at the earnest solicitation of the people of the town of Flatlands, was approved by the Department at Washington, April 10, 1889, but no work has yet been done. The expenditures during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, amount to $16,827.11, as follows: Cost of constracting 820 feet of dike (contract February 25, 1888) Cost of inspection...... Cost of administration Total $7,988.40 7, 497.00 186.00 747.87 407.84 16, 827. 11 Canarsie Landing, besides being the terminus of the Brooklyn, Rockaway Beach and Jamaica Bay Railroad, from which passengers are transshipped by steamer to Rockaway Beach, has a large fishing industry. The dikes already constructed appear to maintain the channel, and until the effect of floating ice during a hard winter can be observed it is recommended that the extension of them be deferred. It is thought that $10,000 will be sufficient to complete the channel and repair the dikes, and an appropriation of this amount is therefore recommended. The amount expended on this improvement to June 30, 1889, is $41,390.74. This work is in the collection district of New York, which is the nearest port of entry. Nearest light-house, Fort Tompkins Light. Nearest fort, Fort Hamilton. The amount of revenue collected at the port of New York during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, $147,694,618.45. A statement of the commerce of Canarsie Bay will be found in the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1887, Part I, page 740. July 1, 1888, amount available.. Money statement. Amount appropriated by act of August 11, 1888.. July 1, 1889, amount expended during fiscal year exclusive of liabilities outstanding July 1, 1888. July 1, 1889, outstanding liabilities.. July 1, 1889, balance available..... $46.87 10, 000, 00 10, 046.87 $8, 437.61 2.00 8,439, 61 1,607.26 45,000.00 10,000.00 Amount (estimated) required for the completion of existing project.... F 3. IMPROVEMENT OF SUMPAWANUS INLET, NEW YORK. Sumpawanus Inlet, known in the neighborhood and on the Coast Survey charts as Sampawams Creek, is a small creek on the south side. of Long Island, emptying into the Great South Bay. It lies about 36 miles east of New York City, 15 miles east of the western end of the Great South Bay, and nearly twice as far from its eastern end. ENG 89- -52 Fire Island Inlet, through which most of the waters of Great South Bay pass into the Atlantic Ocean, lies south-southeast of Sampawams Creek, distant about 6 miles in a direct line, but 11 miles by the channel. The inlet is a tidal stream from 100 to 200 feet wide, running up to the town of Babylon, Long Island, which lies less than a mile north of the mouth. It is crossed here by a dam, which forms a reservoir for the fresh-water of a small creek, which supplies the town with water. The mean rise and fall of the tides at the mouth of the inlet is only 1.3 feet, and the bottom of the bay and of the inlet is soft mud. The first survey of Sampawams Creek of which we have any record was ordered by act of Congress, approved June 14, 1880, and was made during the fall of 1888, under the direction of General (then Colonel) John Newton, Corps of Engineers. His report may be found in the Annual Report of the Chief of Engi neers for 1881, Part I, page 54. The project of improvement based upon this survey provided for dredging a channel 150 feet wide and 5 feet deep at mean low water from the 5-foot curve in the bay to the steam-boat dock at the mouth of the creek, a distance of about 1,500 feet, and thence 5 feet deep and 100 feet wide up the inlet to the town of Babylon, a distance of about 3,500 feet further. The estimated cost of making this improvement was $23,115. The mean range of tides at the mouth of the inlet being only 1.3 feet, there was practically no current swift enough to produce scour. The depth of water in the proposed channel at the time of the survey was from 1 to 3 feet in the creek and from 3 to 5 feet outside. It was not believed that diking would assist in improving this entrance, and inquiry showed that the depth of water both outside and inside the inlet had materially diminished in late years. The amount expended under the project to June 30, 1888, was $6,928.12, giving a channel 75 feet wide and 5 feet deep from the steam boat wharf, 750 feet below it, besides two cuts, each 25 feet wide, alongside the wharf. Outside of the cuts so made and extending to the 5-foot curve in the bay a shoal was left on which the depth was only about 43 feet. An examination made in 1886 showed that since the last dredging was done, in 1883, both the cut and the dat outside had shoaled from 6 inches to 1 foot, the depth in the cut being about 5 feet, while on the flat it was from 4 to 4 feet. This was to have been anticipated, as appears by the preliminary report made by General Newton. The 5-foot curve in the bay was 1,500 feet from the steam-boat wharf, but inside this curve, for about 750 feet toward the wharf, lay the flat. The commerce of Sampawams Creek is essentially that of Babylon, a small town of from 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, 1 mile above the mouth of the creek, depending almost entirely upon the summer trade of the hotels and cottages along the north shore of Great South Bay and on Fire Island Beach. The commerce of Babylon by water has been decreased, apparently because the Long Island Railroad has taken away the sea-going business. Babylon itself has improved, and has become a fashionable summer resort At present its commerce by sea is carried on by three passenger steam-boats, drawing from 4 to 5 feet, running in summer to Fire Island Beach; three schooners, drawing from 5 to 54 feet, carrying brick, lime, lumber, and other heavy freight to Babylon the year round; 100 sloops and pleasure boats, drawing from 1 to 2 feet of water, taking out sailing and fishing parties in summer, of which seven or eight remain in use during the winter, fishing and taking oysters and clams to Patchogue, Sayville, and New York. The commerce of the creek, in my judgment, does not warrant the formation of a channel more than 5 feet deep from the 5-foot curve in the bay to the steam-boat wharf, for the convenience of the few steamers and schooners which make use of the creek. It is stated that the shoals in the bay kill the sea so entirely that pleasure boats can now lie in the mouth of the creek in all weather. So far as the extension of the improvement from the steam-boat dock up to the inlet is concerned, there appears to be no reason why the Government of the United States should undertake it. The original estimate of the cost of the work was $23,115. thousand dollars have been appropriated. Seven Ten thousand dollars can be expended in giving a 5-foot channel out into the bay for the use of steam-boats, but I think that the work is more a matter of local than public interest. This work is in the collection district of New York, which is the nearest port of entry. Nearest light-house, Fire Island Light. Nearest fort, Fort Hamilton. The amount of revenue collected at the port of New York during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, $147,694,618.45. July 1, 1889, amount expended during fiscal year, exclusive of liabilities outstanding July 1, 1888.... July 1, 1889, balance available...... Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project............ $71.88 54.75 17.13 16, 115.00 10,000.00 F 4. IMPROVEMENT OF ARTHUR KILL, NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY. The act of August 11, 1888, making appropriations for rivers and harbors provides as follows: Improving Arthur Kill between Staten Island Bridge and the New Jersey shore, New York and New Jersey, dredging and straightening channel near Staten Island Bridge and removing the point of land westerly of same, ten thousand dollars. This appropriation was introduced by the Committee on Commerce of the Senate, the object being to cut off the point on the Staten Island shore a short distance south of the railroad bridge with the hope and expectation that the current on the flood would be directed more truly towards the eastern draw-span of the bridge. A rough survey of the point in question was ordered by Department instructions dated August 16, 1888, with request that a report and sketch giving the curves and depth of water, the amount of the point that can be cut off for the sum appropriated, the present direction of the flood currents and the probable or possible effect the dredging in question will have upon the set of the flood-tide between the point and bridge, be forwarded to the Department. This report was submitted August 30, 1888, was approved by the Acting Secretary of War September 4, 1888, and the officer then in charge, Captain Derby, ordered to submit a project for the expenditure of the money and to take immediate steps towards acquiring title to the necessary land to carry the excavation back to the proposed bulkhead lines. This project was submitted October 11, 1888. This report inclosed the deed of Jacob Hatfield and wife in consideration of $1 for 1.29 acres of land for the improvement of Arthur Kill, New York and New Jersey, and if approved it was recommended that payment be made for it ($69.50) without waiting to have the title searched. The report also stated that the ownership of the remaining .22 acre required was in dispute and that it might be necessary to condemn this portion of the land in question. In compliance with Department letter November 23, 1887, a tracing showing the approved plans for the improvement of Arthur Kill was transmitted to the Department October 11, 1888. Application for the services of the United States district attorney for the eastern district of New York, to prepare the necessary papers for the conveyance of the land, in accordance with General Order No. 47, Adjutant General's Office, 1881, was made to the Department under date of October 23, 1888, and telegraphic notification dated December 31, 1888, was received January 2, 1889, authorizing me to consult with United States District Attorney M. D. Wilber. The matter was placed in the hands of Attorney Wilber January 2, 1889. No action having been taken by the district attorney a com munication was forwarded to the Department under date of April 20, 1889, requesting that condemnation proceedings be instituted under provisions of the act of April 24, 1888, with a view to procuring the land in question at the rate of $60 per acre. The Secretary of War on April 2-, in a letter to the Attorney-General, requested that condemnation proceedings be instituted, and the United States district court thereupon appointed commissioners to ascertain the compensation to be made to the owners and persons interested. The commisioners appointed were as follows: Noah Tebbets, of Kings County, Clarence T. Barrett, of Richmond County, and Henry T. Metcalf, of Richmond County. No further action had been taken at the close of the fiscal year. The expenditures during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, amount to $974.35, as follows: Cost of pro rata share of 1 tug-boat.... Cost of administration........ $585.10 3-9.35 This work is in the collection district of New York, which is the nearest port of entry; nearest light-house, Bergen Point Light; nearest fort, Fort Tompkins. The amount of revenue collected at the port of New York during the year ending June 30, 1889, is $147,694,618. 45. Money statement. Amount appropriated by act August 11, 1888..... July 1, 1889, amount expended during fiscal year, exclusive of liabilities outstanding July 1, 1888..... $10,000,00 974.35 July 1, 1889, balance available..... 9.025,65 Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project..... harbor acts of 1866 and 1867. Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30,1891 16,500,00 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and 16.500,00 |