DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 411

neering and economic standpoints. Their estimates of cost, however, were
based upon plans for a canal of a design somewhat different from that con-
sidered by the Army engineers and made before fall data were available.
 In order to check the plans and estimates of these two groups, the President
directed the appointment of a board of review, his instructions being carried
out in May 1934, when the Secretary of War and the Federal Emergency
Administrator of Public Works appointed two representatives each from the
Corps of Engineers and the Public Works Administration. A distinguished
private consulting engineer was named chairman of the five-man board. This
board made an intensive inspection of the proposed route and of work of a
similar nature already under way in Florida. Special care was taken to com-
pare the difficulties of construction and the character of the material, as shown
by borings on the alinement, with those observed on work in progress. The
character of the terrain, existing transportation facilities, and other factors
controlling costs of construction, were examined. The data and estimates pre-
pared by the special board of Army Engineers and by the Public Works Admin-
istration were carefully studied and were supplemented by original investiga-
tions by the board of review on methods of construction, costs of similar work
falling within the experience of the board's members, on available water supply,
ground water, and bridges and other appurtenant structures. The views of
local interests were heard by the board, and such written data as were sub-
mitted were given careful consideration.
 The board of review, after the foregoing activities, evolved the plan of
Improvement which is now being followed by the Corps of Engineers under
the supervision of the district engineer at Ocala, a district especially created
for conduct of the project.
 OEGEAL DESCRIPTION

 The project calls for the construction of a 30-foot sea-level canal following
 route 13B. Its length will be 196 miles from deep water to deep water, of
which 90 miles will be an artificial cut through the earth and rock of central
Florida, and the remainder will be in the river and Gulf sections where work
will consist mainly of widening, deepening, and straightening existing water-
ways. The project grade of 30 feet will be increased by overdepths of 3 feet
in rock and 2 feet in earth.
 From the Atlantic entrance to Jacksonville, a distance of about 28 miles,
 the canal channel will have a bottom width of 400 feet, which will involve
 widening the present 300-foot channel without changing the present 30-foot
 depth in that section. Above Jacksonville there is an existing project for a
 13-foot channel 200 feet wide to Palatka, about 65 miles from Jacksonville,
 which cannot be followed exactly by the new waterway due to the presence
 of many bends. It is planned, therefore, to follow the general course of the
 river but to adhere to wide curves and long tangents. This section of the
 canal will also have a bottom width of 400 feet.
 From Palatka to a point southeast of Ocala the valley of the Oklawaha River
 is low-lying and swampy. The canal will follow generally the line of the river
 in this section, although excessive meandering will prevent a rigid adherence
 to the stream's bed. The bottom width through the section will be 250 feet.
 West of the Oklawaha Valley the country rises somewhat sharply to a maxi-
 mum elevation of 108 feet just south of Ocala. This high ground continues
 westward for about 20 miles before dropping again to the low-lying Withla-
 coochee River Valley near Dunnellon. Through this "cross country" cut the
 canal will have a bottom width of 250 feet, which will be maintained as the
 channel generally follows the rocky Withlacoochee River some 20 miles to the
 Gulf. Owing to the shoal water and underlying rock encountered in the Gulf
 near shore, it will be necessary to carry the channel into the Gulf for about
 19% miles. This cut will have a bottom width of 500 feet for the first 16 miles
 and 1,000 feet for the remaining distance.
 The Gulf channel will be protected on the north by Sea Horse Reef, which
 extends, submerged, in a southwesterly direction from the vicinity of Cedar
 Keys, a small coastal town about 16 miles north of the entrance to the Gulf
 cut. On the southwest protection from possible Gulf storms will be afforded by
 a breakwater to be constructed of rock dredged from the canal's Gulf channel.
 The Atlantic entrance is already protected by Jetties at the mouth of the St.
 Johns River.
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