DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


would also serve for barge traffic. However, engineering consider-
ations governing the construction of a waterway of ship-canal dimen-
sions confined the location of the project to the peninsula of Florida,
and eliminated the possibility of a route through both Georgia and
Florida.
 Under the River and Harbor Acts of 1927 and 1930, the Corps of
Engineers initiated and completed examinations and physical surveys
of this project. The surveys were conducted by a special board
of Army engineer officers detailed to that work by the Chief of
Engineers.
 In 1932 there was organized in New Orleans a National Gulf-
Atlantic Ship Canal Association, the stated purpose of which was to
procure construction by the Federal Government of this project in
order that the resulting benefits might accrue to industry, agriculture,
and commerce of the Nation.
 The above-named association, a corporation not for profit, made a
 pro form application to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for
 a loan for the construction of the canal as a self-liquidating project,
 This pro form application proposed that the loan be made to such
 appropriate public corporation or agency as the Reconstruction
 Finance Corporation might direct.
 By an act of the Legislature of the State of Florida approved May
 12, 1933, there was created the Ship Canal Authority of the State of
 Florida, with powers and duties appropriate to cooperation with the
 Federal Government in the construction of such a waterway. This
 authority then became the applicant for the loan before the Recon-
 struction Finance Corporation, replacing the National Association.
 In June 1933 the special board of survey of the Corps of Engineers
 made a preliminary report to the Chief of Engineers. At this date
 the board had completed the gathering of the greater part of its
 physical data upon which the cost of the project might be developed.
 No action on the application was taken by the Reconstruction
 Finance Corporation, and in or about August 1933 the application,
 together with all other applications of this class, was transferred by
 Executive order to the Public Works Administration.
 The engineering division of the Public Works Administration made
 a thorough examination of the project, assuming the basic physical
 data obtained by the special board of survey of the Corps of Engi-
 neers, but developing its own plans, specifications, and unit construc-
 tion costs, and supplementing by its own examination the economic
 survey which was being carried out by the special board. Under
 date of October 19, 1933, a report on the project was made by the
 Public Works Administration engineers (exhibit F-4). This report
 found that the estimated cost of a lock canal, according to the plans
 of the Public Works Administration engineers, would be $115,000,000,
 and that the direct benefits resulting from the canal would be upward
 of $8,524,000 per year; that in addition to the direct benefits there
 would be additional benefits of $2,004,000 per year; and that the cash
 tolls which might reasonably be expected to be collected would be
 $6,500,000 per year. The conclusions reached in that report are
 quoted, as follows:
 It is concluded that the project covered herein constitutes a public necessity
 and is of real social value. The project will afford much employment to many


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