The progress of commerce during the nineteenth century has been promoted not only by the evolution of ships of great speed and capacity, but also by the improvements made in numerous other auxiliaries of commerce. Chief among these aids to commercial activity have been the betterment of natural waterways and the construction of ship-canals, the improvements of harbors, the laying of cables, and the extension of international banking facilities.
The improvements of such rivers as the Rhine, Danube, Hudson, and Mississippi, and of such natural waterways as the chain of Great Lakes in the northern part of the United States, are conspicuous instances of the manner in which the canalization of natural waterways has been undertaken for the promotion of traffic. That part of the Rhine River traffic which passes Emmerich and Mannheim amounted to 2,800,000 tons a year from 1872 to 1875, but by 1895 it had increased to 10,300,000 tons. The traffic on the rivers of the Mississippi Valley, according to census statistics, increased from 18,946,522 tons, in 1880, to 29,485,046 tons, in 1889; and since that year the increase must have been considerable. The effect of the improvement of waterways upon commerce is most strikingly shown in the case of our Great Lakes. In the seventies, the demands of traffic were for channels and harbors 12 feet in depth. During the next decade it was necessary for the United States to increase the depth to 16 feet; and in the nineties the channels had to be made deep enough to accommodate vessels of 20 feet draft. At the present time the traffic on the Lakes is probably over 70,000,000 tons annually. During the year 1898 the freight that passed the locks at the Sault St. Marie equaled 21,000,000 tons, two and a half times the tonnage passing the Suez Canal.
During the last third of the nineteenth century six important ocean ship-canals have been opened; the Suez, opened in 1869; the Rotterdam Canal, in 1872; the canal connecting Amsterdam directly with the North Sea, 1877; the canal across the Isthmus of Corinth, 1893; the Manchester Canal, 1894; and the Baltic or Kiel Canal, finished in 1895. The Panama Canal was begun in 1882, and the construction of the Nicaragua Canal was commenced in 1889; but the date of the completion of these most important works is still problematical.
In the improvement of its harbors every government has been active. Thirty years ago a depth of 23 feet was considered ample, but after 1880 it became necessary to adopt 27 feet as the standard. During the past five years the larger seaports have required harbors with 30 feet of water in order to accommodate the largest ocean vessels, and the limit has by no means been reached. The United States Government has just recently, 1899, authorized the deepening of New York harbor to 35 feet. As noted before, the Oceanic can be loaded to a draft of 32½ feet.
THE OCEANIC, 1899. LARGEST SHIP AFLOAT.
(Tonnage, 17,000: length, 705 ft. 6 in.; breadth, 68 ft. 4 in.)
The docks of the great seaports have been improved at a cost of many millions of dollars. As an illustration of this Liverpool may be cited. The city’s position gave it great commercial possibilities, but a troublesome bar at the mouth of the Mersey, and a tide with a rise and fall of thirty feet made the construction of its harbor and docks a difficult matter. The problem was solved by the construction, under public control, of a large number of commodious wet docks with gates which are opened only a few hours a day, during high tide. These harbor improvements have made possible Liverpool’s phenomenal expansion in commerce during the past quarter of a century, an increase that has given the city third place among the seaports of the world, with an annual tonnage of vessels entered and cleared of 16,000,000 tons.
The achievements of Manchester during the past decade are even more notable than those of Liverpool. Manchester is situated on a small stream thirty-five miles from the ocean; but she has become a seaport for the largest ocean vessels, and has docks and wharves equipped with the most improved appliances. Her dock-sheds, for instance, are twin structures, three stories in height, and the arrangements for handling freight are such that goods are taken directly from the ships to any one of the three stories of the sheds.
In the United States, the government and private corporations are rapidly improving the harbor facilities of our ports. During the past decade the Gulf ports have received especial attention, with the result that a large part of our export trade is now moving through the Gulf harbors. As an instance of what private corporations are doing, mention may be made of the fact that a railway corporation has recently completed a wharf in New Orleans that cost $2,000,000.