DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


171


of the Panama Canal They are grossly in error. Notwithstanding its great
advantages, the traffic of the latter is exceeded by the potential traffic of the
former.
 34. As compared with the Cape Horn route, the Panama Canal saves over
8,000 miles of distance between United States Pacific coast ports and such a
typical port as Norfolk on the Atlantic coast. In the calendar year 1932 the
Panama Canal transited 4,867 vessels, carrying 18*0,938 long tons of cargo.
The net registered tonnage was 16,573,865 tons. For the "big year" of 1929 the
figures were 6430 ships and 31,450,498 long tons of cargo.
 35. In the first 10 months of 1985 the Panama Canal transited 4,175 vessels
 with a net registered tonnage of about 17,600,000 tons. In the same time the
 Sues Canal transited 4,951 vessels of about 17,800,000 net registered tons. The
 Italian military operations in Ethiopia account for a considerable part of this
 Suez traffic.
 36. From the foregoing statements it will be noted that the Kiel Canal
 transits more ships and more tonnage than either the Sues or the Panama
 CanaL The analyses of the commerce of the ports of the Gulf of Mexico made
 by two different and unbiased agencies for the years 1929 and 1981 clearly
 show that the potential traffic for the Florida canal exceeds that of the Kiel
 Canal which, in turn, exceeds that of both the Sues and the Panama Canals.
 37. It does not matter that the Florida canal will be longer than any of the
 others mentioned. It is important, however, that its navigable capacity is so
 great that it will even exceed the capacity of the navigable channels leading
 to the port of Houston and to numerous other ports on the Gulf and Atlantic
 coasts, and its capacity will at least equal the navigable capacity of the present
 channel from the ocean to the harbor of Jacksonville. In other words, the
 canal will permit a very free and speedy vessel movement. It is important
 also that notwithstanding its length, it will still save many miles and many
 hours or days, and many dollars for vessels plying between ports on the Gulf
 of Mexico and ports on either side of the North Atlantic Ocean and in the
 Mediterranean. Obviously, with the great volume of traffic to be accommodated,
 it will be equipped for navigation at all hours of the day and night, and will be
 equipped with a signal system which will warn bridge tenders, as well as the
 officers navigating the ships as to the possibility of immediate passage through
 any bridge. It is highly probable that railway bridges will conform to the
 Cape Cod practice and will habitually be in the open position to permit the
 passage of vessels and will be brought into the closed position only upon the
 approach of trains.
 CONCLUSION

 38. Water-borne commerce is not a new thing under the sun, nor are canals
 a new-fangled notion. Their origins are shrouded in the mists of the most
 remote antiquity. Various bureaus of the Federal Government collect and com-
 pile complete statistics as to the movement of freight by water as well as by
 rail. Figures are available as to the cost of building, maintaining, and oper-
 ating ships under various conditions not only in the open waters of the ocean
 but also in harbors and inland channels. Copious figures exist as to the cost
 of excavating earth and rock and as to costs of all other elements entering into
 canal construction. Engineers and others are capable of digesting all these
 figures and of estimating costs of constructing, maintaining, and operating the
 Florida ship canal. They are also capable of evaluating the benefits to accrue
 to commerce. They are able to balance one against the other with a view to
 determining what is the economic Justification for the construction of a trans-
 Florida canal. Three successive but independent boards, consisting of the most
 capable engineers in the country, have carefully investigated the project and
 have pronounced its construction as being in the interests of the United States.
 39. In view of all these facts, in view of all the experience with traffic through
 the Sues and Panama Canals, and particularly in view of the experience in the
 Kiel, Corinth, and Welland Canals, which are analogous to the trans-Florida
 canal; in view of all the commercial statistics on which to base calculations
 of the potential traffic there is no room for doubt that the Gulf-Atlantic ship
 canal across Florida will serve a useful purpose and that there is ample
 economic warrant for its construction.


82710-36----12