A ship canal connects Sturgeon Bay with Lake Michigan. It is 7,200 feet long, vnrYinff from 160 to 250 feet wide, and the channel is being continued into Sturgeon Bay, a distance of four miles, having a width of 200 feet and s depth of 19 feet at low water datum. In 1917 the tonnage through that canal was 724803 tons and the harbor afforded shelter for more than 100 vessels.
The Chicago River, formed by the junction of the North and South branches, discharges into the Sanitary Canal and is only seven-tenths of a mile long. It has a channel 21 feet below low water datum in Lake Michigan. The head of navigation is Belmont avenue, five and five fourteenths miles on the North Branch, and Ashland, four and eight-hundredths miles on the South Branch. In the Chicago River are att merous slips, docks and other terminal facili ties. The Calumet River is seven and eighty three-hundredths miles long and empties into Lake Michigan 1254 miles south of Chicago. It is formed by Little Calumet River, 60 miles long, and Grand Cahmiet River. which is a lagoon 18 miles long. The entrance to Calumet River is to he 200 feet wide and 21 feet deep, and the improvement is to be extended up stream five and forty-seven-hundredths miles to eThe Forks,• with turning basins located at intermediate points.
The river is navigable by vessels of four feet draft from The Forks to Indiana Harbor Canal, and by vessels of six-feet draft to River dale on the Little Calumet, a distance of 12 miles from the mouth of the river. The en trance to the harbor is protected by parallel breakwaters. The tonnage of the river and harbor in 1917 was 10.269,304 tons. The Illi nois River, formed by the junction of the Kan kakee and Des Plaines rivers, empties into the Mississippi 36 miles above Saint Louis. It is 273 miles long. Years ago it was navigable by Mississippi boats from its mouth as far as Utica, a distance of 230 miles. It is now being im proved to secure a seven-foot depth at low water from La Salle, the head of navigation, to its mouth, a distance of 223 miles, by lock and dam construction and dredging. The locks are 325 feet long and 73 feet wide, with seven and seven-tenths feet of water over the mitre sills and with seven-feet lifts. The State of Illinois is co-operating with the Unitel States government in that improvement. The tonnage over the improved sections of the river in 1917 was 284,970 tons and the number of passengers transported was 32,574. When improved, the Illinois River will form apart of a continuous waterway from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, the other con necting sections being the Illinois and Michigan Canal, 63 miles long, extending from La Salle to Joliet and the Chicago Sanitary or Drainage Canal extending from Joliet to Lake Michigan. The Illinois t.nd Michigan Canal, when con structed was Su miies lung and extended to the South Branch of the Chicago River at Chicago.
It had a bottom width of 40 feet, a surface width of 60 feet and a depth of six feet, and II locks, which were 103 feet long and 17 feet wide, and had five to six feet of water over the mitre sills. That canal has been repaired and restored to a navigable' condition. Another waterway connecting Lake MiChigan and the Mississippi River is the Illinois and the Missis sippi Canal, proceeding from the Illinois River at a point one and three-quarters miles above Hennepin, via the Bureau Creek Valley and over the summit to Rock River, and down that river to the Mississippi. It has a surface width of 80 feet, a depth of seven feet and 33 locks 150 feet long and 35 feet wide. The main canal is 75 miles long and has a navigable feeder ex tatding from Rock Falls on Rock River to the summit level. Some. improvements have been made in that canal, which were completed in 191& Its tonnage in 1917 was 15,662 tons and 32,377 passengers were transported. The Ke veenaw waterway, partly natural and, partly ar tificial, 25 miles in length, extends across Ke weenaw Point in Michigan. It is a navigable channel 20 feet deep with a bottom width of 120 feet, along which there are 32 privately owned docks. It affords access to a harbor of refuge for Lake Superior vessels. The tonnage passing through it in 1917 was 558,456 tons.
Saint Joseph River in Michigan and Indiana was at one time navigable as far as South Bend, a distance of 50 miles. It now has a channel from 30 to 50 feet wide and from two to three feet deep, at lo\v water, from its mouth into Lake Michigan at Saint _Joseph up to Berrien, a distance of 22 miles. The harbor at the outlet including the outlet of the Pawpaw River and the Benton Harbor Canal is two and one-tenth tui/es lung, with a channel 18 feet deep and 150 feet wide, two-thirds of a mile long, a turning basin and a canal 15 feet deep and 100 feet wide to Benton Harbor. The tonnage of that port in 1917 was 115,138 tons. Saginaw River in Michigan has been improved and has a channel, 200 feet wide and 181/2 feet deep, from Saginaw Bay to the mouth of the river three and one-quarter miles and thence 161/2 feet deep to its source, a distance of 22 miles. There are several thousand feet in length of docks in and between Bay City and Saginaw, which are situated on that waterway. The lower three and one-quarter miles of the channel of Black River in Michigan has been dredged to a depth of 17 feet and the width of 160 decreasing to 75 feet. Boats of small draft ascend the river five miles beyond the improve ment. There are docks on both sides of the river for a thousand feet or more, all of which are privately owned. In 1917 the tonnage was 80,006 tons.