6. Caloosahatchee River, Florida.-Before improvement the lower part of the river was so obstructed by oyster bars that the available channel depth was only 5 feet. About 17 miles above the mouth the river loses the characteristics of an estuary, and there are numerous islands and a broad shoal. The project adopted in 1882 called for the formation, by dredging, of a channel 100 feet wide and 7 feet deep from the bay to Fort Myers, a distance of 17 miles. In 1886 this project was modified so as to include the improvement of the upper river as far as Fort Thompson by removal of snags and overhanging trees. Up to June 30, 1891, $27,453.39 had been expended on the improvement. A channel 6 feet deep and 100 feet wide existed between the mouth and Fort Myers. A narrow cut, 5 feet deep, had been made through the shoals at Beautiful Islands and partially protected by a training wall, and the worst obstructions had been removed from the river as far as Fort Thompson. Three thousand six hundred dollars was appropriated in the act of September 19, 1890, for completing the improvement. With this sum the remaining obstructions were removed from the channel between Fort Thompson and the Beautiful Islands. The cut at the Beautiful Islands shoal and its protecting dike were extended, and the channel through the oyster bars at the mouth of the river was enlarged and marked. When work stopped there was a clear channel from the mouth to Fort Thompson, having a mean low-water depth of 6 feet as far as Fort Myers and a depth of 4 feet for the remaining distance. An annual expenditure of $1,000 will be required to maintain this improvement. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended... August 10, 1891, amount refunded by land-grant railroad June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year July 1, 1892, balance unexpended Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892. Amount available for fiscal year ending June 30, 1893..... $146.61 3.63 150.24 127.65 22.59 1,000.00 1,022.59 Amount (estimated) required for maintenance of existing project..... Submited in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867. (See Appendix O 6.) 1,000.00 7. Channel of Charlotte Harbor and Pease Creek, Florida.-The portion under improvement lies between the Boca Grande entrance from the Gulf of Mexico and the wharves at Punta Gorda, 2 miles from the mouth of Pease Creek. The available depth at the entrance is 19 feet at mean low water. Immediately within the entrance there is an anchorage with a depth of 18 feet and over. Between that point and Punta Gorda, a distance of 241⁄2 miles, the channel depth varies from 10 to 20 feet. In the act of September 19, 1890, $35,000 was appropriated for improving the channel between the limits named. A survey of the defective portions of the channel was made, a project was prepared for its improvement, and a contract entered into for doing the work. The approved project contemplates the immediate formation of a channel 12 feet deep and as wide as the funds will permit. The estimated cost of a channel 200 feet wide and 12 feet deep is $127,500; of a channel 200 feet wide and 15 feet deep, $468,000. The amount expended up to June 30, 1891, was $2,886.44. It was decided to expend the money available in deepening the channel from the wharf at Punta Gorda to Beacon No. 2, a distance of about 10,000 feet. The present depth of water in this portion of the channel varies from 10 feet at the wharf to 12 feet at Beacon No. 2. It is estimated that the amount available is sufficient to excavate a channel 300 feet wide for a distance of 300 feet in front of the wharf, and 100 feet wide from that point to Beacon No. 2 to a depth of 12 feet. Active operations will begin as soon as the contractor has completed the work in Hillsboro Bay, Florida. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year. July 1, 1892, balance unexpended.......... July 1, 1892, amount covered by uncompleted contracts. July 1, 1892, balance available.... Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project....... Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867. (See Appendix O 7.) $32, 113. 56 337.51 31, 776. 05 29,500.00 2,276. 05 92,500.00 8. Sarasota Bay, Florida.-The total length of Sarasota Bay is 34 miles. The portion under improvement extends from Tampa Bay to Sarasota, a distance of 21 miles. The general available channel depth is 5 feet, but there are two reaches, aggregating 1 mile in length, where the available channel depth varies from 3.5 to 4.3 feet. The approved project contemplates the formation of a channel 100 feet wide and 5 feet deep at mean low water between the limits named above. The amount expended up to June 30, 1891, was $273.00. Work was begun by the United States snag and dredge boat Suwanee October 31, 1891, and discontinued, owing to the exhaustion of the appropriation, February 13, 1892. The work was much retarded by stormy weather and accidents to the pump dredge, caused by its being choked with large clams, some of which were as much as seven inches in diameter. 4,363.5 cubic yards of material, measured in place, were removed, forming a cut 1,673 feet long and 38 feet wide through the shoal near Palma Sola Point. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year.. $4,727.00 4, 666.73 July 1, 1892, balance unexpended ... Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892. Amount available for fiscal year ending June 30, 1893.. Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project.. Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867. (See Appendix O 8.) 60.27 2,500.00 2,560.27 10,000.00 9. Manatee River, Florida.-The portion of the Manatee River under improvement is the lowest reach, between Rocky Bluff and the mouth, a distance of about 12 miles. This had a midchannel depth of from 7 to 20 feet. The general width is about three-fourths of a mile. At the mouth was a long shoal with a minimum depth of 7 feet. Between Palmetto and Manatee, about 6 miles from the mouth, was another bar, covered by from 3 to 5 feet of water. The river was examined in 1881. The project adopted had for its object to form a channel 100 feet wide and 13 feet at mean low water from Tampa Bay to McNeil Point (Palma Sola). Owing to the changed commercial relations since the adoption of the project, brought about by the extension of the railroad to Tampa, the transfer to Tampa of the principal Gulf steamship lines, and the service of the smaller towns around Tampa Bay by coasting steamers from Tampa, the project was modified in 1886 to provide for the passage of these lighter-draft vessels to all of the towns of the lower river by the removal of the bar above Palmetto. Up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, $27,881.93 was expended on this improvement. A dredged cut was made across the bar at the mouth of the river, another cut was made across the bar between Manatee and Braidentown, and a survey and map of the river were made. The cut at the mouth had been nearly obliterated, but a channel 8 feet deep and of sufficient width existed from Tampa Bay to Manatee. In the act approved September 19, 1890, $6,000 was appropriated for continuing the improvement. The amount was insufficient to make any permanent improvement in the channel at the mouth, the only place where work is now required, and the money available is held until required elsewhere in the river or until further appropriations shall increase it to a sum sufficient for economical work at the mouth. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended.. June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year July 1, 1892, balance unexpended.. July 1, 1892, outstanding liabilities. July 1, 1892, balance available Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892.. Amount available for fiscal year ending June 30, 1893. Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project.... Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867. (See Appendix O 9.) $6, 118. 07 96. 20 6, 021.87 46.35 5,975.52 6,000.00 11, 975. 52 33,000.00 10. Tampa Bay, Florida.-The harbor at Tampa Bay, at the head of one arm of this bay, was separated from deep water by a flat 2 miles wide. Through this was a narrow channel with an average available depth of about 5 feet, formed by the waters of Hillsboro River. The original project was adopted in 1879, and had for its object the formation of a 9-foot channel, 150 feet wide in the bay and 200 feet wide in the river, from the 9-foot curve in the bay to the wharves at Tampa, in Hillsboro River, at an estimated cost of $97,000. Up to June 30, 1891, $95,194 had been expended. The work consisted entirely of dredging and rock excavation, and extended over a distance of 8,200 feet, making a cut varying in width from 200 feet in the river to 60 feet in the bay. On June 30, 1887, it had a depth along its center line of from 8.3 to 9 feet. The depth on the flats beyond the outer extremity of the cut is 7 feet. In 1888 the project was modified. Port Tampa, 9 miles from Tampa, on Old Tampa Bay, had become the deep-water port of Tampa. The modified project is to form and maintain a channel 8 feet deep in Hillsboro Bay and Hillsboro River to the city of Tampa, and a channel 20 feet deep and 200 feet wide from the outer bar to Port Tampa. Up to June 30, 1891, no further work had been done in Hillsboro Bay. In Old Tampa Bay the channel through the outer bulkhead had been dredged to a depth of 20 feet for a width of 100 feet, and from 16 to 20 feet for the remaining 100 feet in width, and that through the inner bulkhead for a width of 150 feet with a mid-depth of 19.7 feet. By the act approved September 19, 1890, $25,000 was appropriated for continuing the improvement. Under this appropriation work was resumed in Old Tampa Bay December 19, and in Hillsboro Bay April 7. The channel called for by the project was completed in Old Tampa Bay May 12. Work still continued in Hillsboro Bay at the end of the fiscal year. On June 30 a continuous channel 8 to 9 feet deep and 70 feet wide had been secured from the mouth of the Hillsboro River to the 8-foot contour in Hillsboro Bay, near Ballast Point. In a bend in the channel near Spanish Town Point the channel has been made 100 feet wide. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended.... June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year.. $24, 806.00 14, 801.36 July 1, 1892, balance unexpended... 10, 004. 64 July 1, 1892, outstanding liabilities.. $5,327.59 July 1, 1892, amount covered by uncompleted contracts.. 4,080.67 9, 408. 26 July 1, 1892, balance available Amount appropriated by act approved July 13, 1892. Amount available for fiscal year ending June 30, 1893 (See Appendix O 10.) 596.38 10,000.00 10, 596. 38 11. Withlacoochee River, Florida.-This river is 120 miles long and has a normal width varying from 75 to 180 feet, though at numerous points a defined channel is almost lost in broad marshy lakes and cypress swamps. The low-water depth varied from 1 to 7 feet. Before improvement the river was so obstructed by shoals, loose rocks, snags, fallen trees, floating-grass islands, and bars as to be practically impassable excepting in isolated reaches. The river was examined with a view to its improvement in 1879. The approved project calls for the removal of snags, overhanging trees, loose rocks, and some of the worst shoals between the Gulf of Mexico and Pemberton Ferry, a distance of about 77 miles, so as to permit boats of 2 feet draft to navigate the river during one-half the year. Prior to June 30, 1891, the river had been cleared and made navigable as called for by the project between Pemberton Ferry and Dunnellon. Work was still required on some of the ledges in order to make navigation safe. Work was also required below Dunnellon. The amount expended up to June 30, 1891, was $17,859.83. In the act approved September 19, 1890, $5,400 was appropriated for continuing the improvement. Work under this appropriation was begun March 23 and still continued June 30. On account of the very low stage of the river the United States snag and dredge boat Suwanee could not be taken up where the work was most required. The boat was laid up and a party formed from the crew and the work of removing obstructions was carried on from the small boats and from the banks; 79 snags and 10 overhanging trees were removed; 465 cubic yards of rock was blasted and 296 cubic yards of rock was removed from the channel; 128 linear feet of dams was built. The channel called for by the project is nearly completed. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended August 10, 1891, amount refunded by land-grant railroad June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year July 1, 1892, balance unexpended. July 1, 1892, balance available (See Appendix 0 11.) $6, 040. 17 3.57 6, 043.74 3, 193.00 2,850. 74 762.74 2,088.00 12. Harbor at Cedar Keys, Florida.-The improvement of this harbor has been carried on from time to time under various appropriations made since 1872. It was obstructed by a shoal, known as the Middle Ground, lying in the Main Ship Channel opposite War Key and by shoals elsewhere in the channel and at its outer extremity. At these points the general channel depth of 12 feet was reduced from 7 or 9 feet by outcropping rocks with sand and shells. The existing project for the improvement has for its object to form a channel 200 feet wide and 10 feet deep through these shoals. Work under this project has been carried on under various appropriations made since 1884. The total expenditure up to June 30, 1891, was $19,852.92. A clear channel of the required depth from the Gulf up to Cedar Keys had been obtained. Near Buoy No. 12 and in the Middle Ground the width was insufficient. Some further dredging was done in the Middle Ground. When work stopped the cut there had a width of 200 feet and a least depth of 93 feet. Along its east side the depth was 10 feet. In the act approved September 19, 1890, $2,500 was appropriated for this harbor, with the provision that a portion could be expended at Derrick Island Gap on the inside channel from Suwanee River. The project for this portion of the improvement is to obtain a channel 5 feet deep at mean low water from the harbor of Cedar Keys to the Suwanee Basin. The work was done with the United States steam snag and dredge boat Suwanee. When operations ceased, owing to the exhaustion of the appropriation, a channel had been dredged in the vicinity of Derrick Island Gap 1,196 feet long, 37 feet wide, and 6 feet deep. July 1, 1891, balance unexpended.... June 30, 1892, amount expended during fiscal year July 1, 1892, balance unexpended ...... $2, 147.08 1, 941. 17 205.91 Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project...... 44, 000. 00 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867. (See Appendix O 12.) 13. Suwanee River, Florida.-The length of river under improvement is 130 miles. From the Derrick Gap entrance to Branford, a distance of 80 miles, the width of the river varies from 250 to 300 feet, and its original low-water depth from 3 to 30 feet. It was but little obstructed, excepting at the mouth. Between Branford and Ellaville the general width is 325 feet. It was obstructed by many dangerous rock shoals, crossed by crooked channels, which had a low-water depth of from 1.5 to 3 feet, as well as by snags and overhanging trees. A project for this improvement was adopted in 1880. It contemplates the formation of a channel 150 feet wide and 5 feet deep from the gulf (through the bars at the passes) as far up the river as New |