DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLOBIDA CANAL


Florida to connect the Atlantic intracoastal waterway with the proposed Gulf
intracoastal waterway by the most practicable route, as authorized and directed
by the River and Harbor Act approved July 3, 1930.
 2. Before proceeding to the substane of the report itself, we would invite your
attentiocato our letter of October 16, 1931, addressed to the City Commission of
Jacksonville, wherein we have indicated briefly some of the sources of information
and the principles of accuracy and. completeness that have guided us in the
preparation of the data and the deductions therefrom as hereinafter presented.
 3. Any proper determination of the economic feasibility of a waterway across
the peninsula of Florida necessitates answers to two fundamental questions,
which may be stated as follows:
 (a) What commerce, present and prospective, will benefit from the construction
of the proposed waterway?
 (b) At what cost does that commerce now move, and at what cost will it move
after the improvement, if effected?
 4. At first glance these appear- to be very simple questions. Having the
answers, we shall know the investment value of the project, and then there will
remain but the apparently simple problem of designing and constructing the
waterway within the indicated limit of investment value.
 A. Unfortunately, the primary questions entrain a host of secondary questions,
each permitting of a number of permutations and combinations of factors, some
of which can be definitely determined and some of which must be assumed on the
basis of certain known facts. To determine what commerce will benefit involves
a detailed analysis of all of the commerce, both the inbound and outbound,
both foreign and domestic, of every port in the Gulf of Mexico and their counter-
ports in all parts of the world. It involves a study of the origins and destinations
of the commodities being transported. It. necessitates an elimination of that
commerce destined to or from the Pacific Ocean, also that commerce destined to
or from the West Indies, the east coast of South America, and the west coast of
South Africa, because this commerce will most advantageously follow the existing
ship lanes through the Florida Straits and Yucatan channels.
 It involves the elimination of all that trade local to or between the Gulf ports
themselves; that is to say, internal Gulf trade. It requires the elimination of
duplication of tonnage statistics growing out of the fact that out-bound cargo
at one port must appear as in-bound cargo or as cargo in transit at one or more
other ports. The converse is, of course, equally true, for in-bound cargo at one
port must have been out-bound cargo at another port or ports.
 A mere mention of these circumstances serves to indicate the detailed and
 intricate nature of the studies necessary to a determination of the existing com-
 merce that will or may benefit from the construction of a transpeninsular water-
 way. As for prospective or potential commerce-that which may exist 15 or
 50 years hence-the difficulties of determination are far greater.
 6. As for the second question-that of costs of traffic movement-it is neces-
sary to trace the course of every ship and its cargo, to determine the transporta-
tion cost per ton per mile, to determine what the corresponding costs may be
through the proposed waterway. It becomes necessary td determine the dimen-
sions and operating speeds of all vessels in the Gulf trade and to determine the
minimum dimensions of the waterway and the permissible speed therein. When
it is remembered that no two ships are exactly alike, that their operating costs
vary widely with the season of the year, the ports between which they ply, and
the aid or interference accorded by ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream and
the influence of winds, it is at once apparent that the problem is one of great
detail and much complexity.
 Notwithstanding the great number of details and the great variety of com-
 plexities, we have actually undertaken to analyse the commerce of the Gulf
 ports and to trace the ship movements to and from these ports, all for the calen-
 dar year 1929; which is the latest year for which complete statistics are available.
 We have also made a special study of certain commodities, the production and
 movement of which wi be influenced by the improvement in transportation
 facilities to follow upon the construction of the canal and which also will furnish
 the larger part of the commerce utilizing that waterway, if constructed.
 7. Our report as presented consists of a number of separate parts, segregated
 under primary and secondary headings, as follows:
 Division A. Navigation and commerce:
 Part I. Navigation (shipping):
 Section 1. Vessels.
 Section 2. Voyages by ports.
 Section 3. Voyages by drafts and dimensions of vessels.
 Section 4. Steamship lines and agents.