8. If the improvement were made as far up as West Newton, it would make available for factory sites about 1,100 acres of bottom land. If but one lock and dam were constructed, the area made available would be about 255 acres. The present cost of improvement has not been determined, but it is probable that it would approximate 100 per cent more than the original estimate and represent about $2,000 an acre for the additional sites made available. The improvement might add greatly to local land values.

9. With reference to the question of a public terminal for the exchange of freight between rail and water it appears that the best place for such a terminal is at Gratztown, a short distance below West Newton. To extend navigation to this point would require the construction of three locks and dams. One lock and dam would not, in the opinion of the board, solve the problem of freight congestion and the coordinate use of rail and water. For the full development of such a project there should be through navigation on the Ohio River, and it will be a number of years before the improvement of that stream will be completed.

10. From the foregoing it appears that the benefits to be anticipated from the improvement now proposed would be confined largely to a few industrial concerns near the mouth, and that the project is not commercially and economically justifiable. Moreover, the extreme acidity of the water of the Youghiogheny River would make the construction of locks requiring the use of iron and steel parts of doubtful advisability. In view of all the circumstances, the board concurs in the opinion of the division engineer that at this time it is not advisable for the United States to undertake the improvement of the Youghiogheny River.

11. In compliance with law, the board reports that there are no questions of terminal facilities, waterpower, or other related subjects which could be coordinated with the suggested improvement in such manner as to render the work advisable in the interests of commerce and navigation.

For the Board:

PETER C. HAINS,

Major General, United States Army, Retired,
Senior Member of the Board.

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF YOUGHIOGHENY RIVER, PA.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,
Pittsburgh, Pa., June 27, 1918.

From: The District Engineer.

To: The Chief of Engineers, United States Army

(Through the Division Engineer).

Subject: Preliminary examination of the Youghiogheny River.

1. In compliance with department letter of September 1, 1917, the following report is submitted upon the preliminary examination of the Youghiogheny River, as provided for in section 4 of the river and harbor act of August 8, 1917:

Youghiogheny River, Pa., from its mouth to West Newton, including a report on existing and prospective water terminals.

2. A comprehensive description of the Youghiogheny River and references to documents containing previous reports on this locality, together with full details relating to efforts made to have the Government improve the lower part of this stream, may be found in House Document No. 1284, Sixty-fourth Congress, first session. This report was unfavorable to the improvement. From this report are taken the following paragraphs from the report of the Chief of Engineers to the Secretary of War dated July 6, 1916, which presents in brief form the present status of the project for the improvement of the Youghiogheny River:

The Youghiogheny River is the principal tributary of the Monongahela. Its improvement between the mouth and West Newton by the construction of three locks and dams, at a total estimated cost of $1,050,000, was authorized by the river and harbor act of June 25, 1910, which appropriated $100,000 for commencing the improvement. Expenditures amounting to $12,194.75 have been made in connection with a survey and the preparation of plans, but no actual work has been done, and on April 1, 1915, the balance of $87,805.25 was transferred to the improvement of the Ohio River under authority of the act of March 4, 1915. As a result of his investigation the district officer does not believe that the improvement of the lower end of the river would be of value in affording an outlet for coal or other natural resources. He does believe, however, that the improvement would make a useful and ultimately necessary branch of the Monongahela system and would bring about a certain amount of traffic by opening sites for mills. He reaches the conclusion that the Youghiogheny River below West Newton is worthy of improvement to the extent of building the lowermost lock and dam of the three authorized by the act of June 25, 1910, deferring the construction of the other two until experience has justified the first. The division engineer makes no definite recommendation as to the advisability of prosecuting this project, but states that were the matter entirely new he would recommend that the improvement be not made.

This report has been referred, as required by law, to the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, and attention is invited to its report herewith, dated June 20, 1916. The board's recommendation made six years ago in favor of the improvement of this river was based largely upon the representations of local interests that the improvement was urgently needed to afford facilities for the shipment of coal by water, but it has since developed that no large traffic of this character can be expected. The board does not regard the opening up of sites for manufacturing purposes as a sufficient justification for the work, and it expresses the opinion that it is not advisable for the United States to undertake the improvement of the river by the construction of either one or more locks and dams.

After due consideration of the above-mentioned reports I concur in the views of the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, and therefore report that the improvement by the United States of Youghiogheny River up to West Newton is not deemed advisable at the present time, and legislation is recommended authorizing the abandonment of the existing project.

3. A public hearing was held in this office February 15, 1918, and was attended by about 50 persons representing commercial organizations of Pittsburgh, McKeesport, and West Newton, and prominent individual residents of the Youghiogheny Valley, officials of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie (New. York Central) Railroad were also invited to be present. In the notice of the hearing request was made for written or printed data, but no such papers were presented. Few, if any, facts were adduced at this hearing not already covered in previous reports to Congress. The sentiment at the hearing was unanimously in favor of the improvement.

4. On February 21, 1918, I made a reconnoissance of the river from McKeesport to West Newton, interviewing manufacturers and others along the way as to the present and prospective utility of the stream.

At present the Youghiogheny River is only permanently navigable about 1 miles above its mouth for coal barges, rendered so by back

water from pool No. 2 in the Monongahela River. Six establishments on this section have hoists for unloading coal, sand, and gravel from boats. During the year 1916 these hoists handled 189,750 tons, nearly all coal. The largest plant, that of the McKeesport Tin Plate Co., employing 3,000 men, used 113,000 tons of coal, but since the recent enlargement of its plant expects to receive by boat during this year 250,000 tons of Monongahela coal, and save by so doing from $65,000 to $75,000.

At Christy Park, just above the site of the first proposed dam, or 14 miles above the mouth of the river, the National Tube Co. is about to expend $1,000,000, to enlarge the department of its works devoted to articles for use of the United States Navy. To deliver fuel by water to this plant, unless a dam were built, would require considerable dredging from time to time. Another establishment, owned by the same company, is located at Versailles on the right bank of the river, about 3 miles above the mouth of the river, or about 1 miles above the first proposed dam and is used for galvanizing pipes, turning out a finished product of about 100,000 tons per annum. Its present consumption of coal, which comes by rail, is about 25,000 tons per annum. An official of the company stated that with Dam No. 1 built they would have extra deep water for a water terminal at the works and besides receiving coal could, with the improvement of the Ohio, be able to utilize that river for far western and southern shipments to very good advantage.

Nearly opposite Versailles on the left bank of the river is the Union Sewer Pipe Co. which, doubtless, would also arrange to receive coal by river and ship some of its products by the same means. It was stated by Mr. Ayers of the National Tube Co. that that company has secured considerable areas both above and below Versailles upon which extensions of their works will be located in the future. The Youghiogheny Valley, he said, affords the only ground available for extensions of their works on which, for enlargements during the past 15 years, fully $20,000,000 has been expended, and looking to the future, therefore, he stated, the improvement of the Youghiogheny River is of great importance to his company.

Above McKeesport, areas of ground available for factories, between the tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, along the right bank were pointed out and similar areas were noted along the left bank of the river and between the river and the New York Central tracks. At West Newton, February 21, an impromptu meeting was called in the rooms of the local board of trade, at which my attention was called to the fact that coal, freight, and passenger railways connected the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Irwin, and from Greensburg, with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Gratztown on the Youghiogheny River about 2 miles below West Newton. These lines are shown on the sketch map accompanying this report. The rail distance, Gratztown to Irwin, is about 9.6 miles, and to Greensburg about 17.5 miles.

It was represented that with a rail-to-river transfer for package freight at Gratztown, the Pennsylvania Railroad, as well as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the New York Central lines which parallel the Youghiogheny could be made immediately available for transfer of freight from rail to river and vice versa. The merits of such a project at Gratztown rest altogether on the fact that there is no space

available for an extensive rail-to-river transfer or terminal below Gratztown to Pittsburgh, and apparently no other equally favorable location for such a transfer point in the entire Pittsburgh district.

In former times the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other places east of the Allegheny Mountains, besides their business with Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, utilized the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for shipments to the Middle West and Southwestern States, transferring package freight from rail to boats in Pittsburgh intended for Cincinnati, Louisville, or other points on the Ohio. From Pittsburgh also goods destined for far western points in Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and old Mexico were carried by boats to Vicksburg, Memphis, or Helena, Ark., to be transferred at said points to railroads for points of ultimate destination.

5. Reference was made in former reports to the coal in the Sewickley vein in the river hills, which heretofore has been but little mined. It lies in the series above the Pittsburgh vein, which latter is now nearly exhausted along the river. Several country mines are now being operated in the Sewickley vein, which is said to vary from 3 to 5 feet in thickness, but as yet nothing definite can be said as to the possibilities of an extensive development of this coal. In some areas the Sewickley vein has been seriously disrupted by the removal of the Pittsburgh coal below it where no pillars were left for its support. It is known, also, that shafts of several hundred feet depth below river level will reach the Freeport vein, now being mined profitably above water level 20 and more miles above Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River. Reports of drillers vary considerably as to the thickness of the Freeport coal in the Youghiogheny Valley. While no other coal vein in western Pennsylvania can vie with the Pittsburgh vein in persistent thickness and general good qualities, second-grade veins, such as have been mentioned, will doubtless in the comparatively near future come in for exploitation. They are such coals as are now shipped to Buffalo and other points from the Allegheny Valley.

6. Pittsburgh is a gateway for traffic between the East and West of proportions possibly unequalled elsewhere in the country, and this traffic is growing. So great is this business that it is indeed a matter of national concern. Its volume is double that of the Great Lakes. The railroads entering the city via the Monongahela have in constant use 16 main-line tracks, including 4 main-line tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which enter the river valley 11 miles above the city, but 2 miles below its entrance into the Monongahela Valley crosses over to the Allegheny Valley, thence continuing to its main station in the city.

So crowded are the river banks below McKeesport with mills and sidetracks that it is not practicable to find room for a rail-to-river terminal on any adequate scale. A site sufficient at one point might be found for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad alone, but not reachable by the New York Central and the several Pennsylvania Railroad lines. In addition it may be said that the cost of moving freight to a transfer terminal on any of the main lines below McKeesport would be very great, due to interference by the movement of the long trains of coal, coke, and iron ore which are in almost unceasing movement. Special tracks outside of the existing railroads and

steelworks would have to be built in the river itself, for the hills have already been cut away almost to the limit of practicability to make room for sidetracks and roadways for street car lines, dwellings, etc. It seems inevitable that much of the through traffic as well as a considerable portion of that originating in the Pittsburgh district must eventually be diverted to river carriage and that suitable transfer terminals for the interchange of freight between river and rail must be provided. The construction of the proposed locks and dams in the Youghiogheny River would provide the most available location for such terminals, as well as provide for the extension of manufacturing plants in the Youghiogheny Valley by making it possible to secure coal by river as in the case of other great plants in the Pittsburgh district.

7. In view of the nation-wide inadequacy of our railroads to carry the commerce of the country, it is believed that a fuller utilization of our waterways has become a necessity, and that nowhere can they be more advantageously employed for the relief of railroad congestion than on the Monongahela-Ohio system, of which the Youghiogheny River can be made an important feeder. To obtain this utilization suitable terminal facilities must be provided and provision made for the shipment of water-rail freight on through billing. This question as well as the possibilities of the Ohio River system is rather fully covered in a report on an examination of the Ohio River printed in House Document No. 492, Sixtieth Congress, first session, pages 16 et seq.

8. My conclusion is that the construction of the lowermost of the proposed locks and dams on the Youghiogheny River is justified at this time in the interest of the development of river traffic in the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers.

9. A survey and estimate of cost have already been made as stated in paragraph 2, supra.

10. A sketch map of the locality is inclosed herewith.

H. W. STICKLE,

Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army, Retired.

[First indorsement.1

OFFICE DIVISION ENGINEER, CENTRAL DIVISION,
July 2, 1918.

To the CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, UNITED STATES ARMY:
1. Forwarded.

2. The estimated cost of building the locks and dams below West Newton was given in the report published in House Committee Document No. 9, Sixty-first Congress, second session, as $1,050,000. This, it was pointed out by the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors in its report of June 20, 1916 (published in H. Doc. No. 1284, 64th Cong., 1st sess.), meant an outlay on the part of the United States of practically $1,000 for each acre of factory site made available by the improvement. The cost at the present time, even if it were possible to execute the work, would probably be double the estimate above given. The United States is now finding the greatest difficulty in carrying on the work of river improvement under long established projects and where large and important rivers are at stake. Considering the great cost that would be involved, the great difficulty