DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


409


 And there the matter stands.
 Congress has authorized the Florida ship canal. This Congress or any suc-
ceeding Congress can now make appropriations as needed to carry on the work.
 If the present Congress wants to leave one of its authorized projects as a
partly dug ditch across the top of the Ocala Ridge, with piers of an uncom-
pleted bridge sticking up in the air, that is the prerogative of Congress. But
Congress will be in session until mid-June or later. It will have to enact at
least one deficiency appropriation bill. I am no prophet, but I am inclined to
the belief that as the facts about the Florida Canal become better understood in
Congress the realization will grow that the Florida Canal is not in the same
class with Quoddy.
 If not now, sooner or later Congress is bound to finish the job. The King
of Spain's galleons will be safe for all time from Frankie Drake and his buc-
caneers in the Florida Straits. Old Hickory's dream is coming true.


DOCUMENT NO 136 (FILES OF THE SHIP CANAL AUTHORITY OF THE
 STATE OF FLORIDA), MAY 15, 1936

ARTICLE BY BREHON SOMERVELL, LIEUTENANT COLONEL, CORPS OF
 ENGINEERS, UNITED STATES ABMY, ATLANTI-GULF SHIP CANAL,
 PUBLISHED IN THE MILITARY ENGINEER, ISSUE OF MAY-JUNE 1936

 The following article by Lt. Col. Brehon Somervell was published
 in the May-June 1936 issue of the Military Engineer:
 ATALrmc-GuLT SnHI CANAL

 BREHON 80MBBVELL, LIEUTENANT COLONEL, CORPS OF ENGINEERS
 In the time of Philip II of Spain (1527-98), when Florida was a colony of
 His Catholic Majesty, the need for a short water route across that peninsula
 found expression in a futile search for a natural waterway which would traverse
 the land separating the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean.
 On August 30, 1935, the President of the United States, under authority of the
 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1965, allotted $5,000,000 for preliminary
 work on the Atlantic-Gulf ship canal across Florida.
 During the four centuries intervening there occurred a series of intermittent
 surveys which began in 1826, when Congress authorized the first survey for a
 ship canal from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf. Subsequent authorizations for
 examinations were made in 1832, 1855, 1876, 1880, 1909, and 1921
 These surveys gave consideration to a number of routes for a variety of pro-
 posed canals. In order to determine the feasibility of the proposals, the aline-
 ments and types were coordinated for consideration by a special board of engi-
 neer officers, which was appointed by the Chief of Engineers on February 5,
 1927, to make a preliminary examination and survey of a "Waterway from Cum-
 berland Sound, Ga. and Fla., to the Mississippi River." This survey had been
 called for by the River and Harbor Act of January 21, 1927. The River and
 Harbor Act approved July 3, 1930, also authorized and directed the preliminary
 examination and survey of a "Waterway across northern Florida to connect the
 Atlantic intracoastal waterway with the proposed Gulf intracoastal waterway
 by the most practicable route"
 The board's survey was authorized on January 28, 1932, and was carried out
 under the immediate direction of the district engineer at Jacksonville, Lt. CoL
 B. C. Dunn.
 The first step was the examination of 28 routes, projected on a relief map
 drawn to a scale of 1: 150,000, for cost and commercial advantage. Nineteen of
 these were found to demand excessive construction costs. The remainder then
 were examined in detail on the ground, the surveys including the determination
 of horizontal and vertical control through transit and level lines; aerial pho-
 tography and mapping with a five-lens camera; subsurface exploration by
 churn drill and wash boring, and stream-discharge measurement.
 After careful analysis of the physical and economic data obtained, the most
 feasible route was selected for more intensive study. The alinement chosen.