The New Orleans district includes 25 rivers, harbors and lakes. These include the South and Southwest Passes up into the Mississippi River. The latter is 1.000 feet wide between bulkheads and in the ideal area 2,400 feet wide and 35 feet deep, completed for seven miles with protecting jetties, the east one four and one-half miles and the west three and one-half miles long. Through the South Pass the chan nel is at least 39 feet deep between parallel dikes 700 feet apart. It is 14 miles via the South Pass from the gulf to the head of passes, 91 miles below New Orleans. The improve ment of the several mouths of the Mississippi is the work of years and has involved all the skill of the Engineers of the United States army. Dikes, submerged sills with mattresses placed on the sills at the head of Pass i Loutre, through which 45.7 per cent of the waters of the riser flow, and levees base been constructed .0 various places below New Orleans. The harbor at that city, which is about 104 miles from the Gulf, possesses the advantages of a seaport. 1t is from 1,500 to 3.000 feet wide and 40 feet deep and has extensive wharves and other modern terminal facilities. It ac commodates ocean-going vessels. Its domestic and foreign commerce In 1917 totaled 8,026,283 tons. Its river commerce is increasing.
Lake Pontchartrain, 40 miles king and 24 odes wide, has a central depth of 16 feet. The principal channel is seven feet deep except through the dredged channel of eight feet In depth to Lake Borgne, which is in navigable communication with Mississippi Sound. The sew Basin Canal, seven miles long, brings it into communication with New Orleans. The chan nels of Che uncle, which • i the lake, and Bogue Falia. its tri1.1,...i., IOTA miles above Lake Pontchartrain, are unproved to Covington a distance of 1424 The ton nage of those waterways in 1917 .vas 288,630 tons. Pass Manchac, rising in Lai; Maurepas and flowing into Lake seven auks long, is to have a channel seven feet deep and 100 feet wide and .611 p:,- plying the Amite River, Bayou Mancha,: and Tickfaw Riser to and from New Orleans Tickfaw River flows into Lake Maurepas. It receives the Natalhany R,.. two miles above Its mouth and be Blood 1(1. er seven miles above its mouth Its channel Is dredged to seven feet for In miles and to six feet from the 10th to the mil.' .,' we its mouth. Blood River is to be similarly dredged for four smiles and River and its tributary Ponchatoul: are improved for I554 miles. The 'er is to he cleared of obstructions tor tiv miles above its mouth and its channel deepened and widened for 44 miles. Bayou Manchac is to be improved for steles above its mouth. Other bayous in Louisi ana are being improved. An intercoastal water way of five feet depth and of 40 feet wide on the bottoms being constructed from Bayou Teche near Franklin to the Mermenteau River, a distance of 45 miles. It extends through several lakes and through the Hanson Canal, purchased by the United States, for a distance of 42 miles. A dam across Schooner Bayou and a lock are to be constructed. It also in cludes Schooner Bayou Canal 12 miles long, crosses White Lake 13% miles and includes the canals, connecting Turtle, Alligator and Collicon lakes and extends to Grand Lake 12 miles wide. That waterway is navigable throughout the year. Another connecting inter coastal waterway extends from Mermenteau River. Louisiana, to Sabine River, a distance of 62 miles. It includes the Lake Iliisere Canal and passes south of Sweet Lake and then to Calcasieu River. It has a prism five feet deep and 40 feet wide and is to be seven feet deep and 75 feet wide from Mermenteau to Calcasieu River. It is open throughout the year. Bar Lafourche, once one of the outlets of doe has has a lock at its head and a channel five r et deep and a bottom width of 75 feet through its entire length of 107 miles- Its tonnage in 1917 was 7611,203 tons. Bayou Terrebonne is 53 miles long and empties into a hay of the same name. It has a channel
six feet deep from its mouth to Houma, a dis tance of 34.11 miles. In its tonnage was 134411 tons. Bayou Plaquemine is 112 miles from New Orleans via Mississippi, with which river it is connected by Plaquemine lock. Ves sels passing through that lock in 1917 varied in draft from three and one-half to seven feet and the tonnage was 205,741 tons. It forms 10.6 miles of the waterway to Morgan City, La. That waterway also includes 19.4 miles of the Grand River, Bayou Natchez for six miles, Little and Big Lioddel for six miles, Belle River for nine miles, Bayou Long for seven and three-tenths miles, Flat Lake and Drews Pass to Berwick Bay three and two-tenths miles and thence by Atchafalaya River three and two-tenths miles to Morgan City. Pigeon bayou connects Grand River with Grand Lake. The entire waterway is 64 miles long. The lock is 298 feet 7 inches long and 55 feet wide with 10 feet of water over the mitre sills.
The tonnage over that waterway in 1917 was 776,781 tons. The boats were of four to seven feet draft. Bayou a tributary of the Bayou Plaquemine, is being improved from its mouth eight miles below Plauqemine lock to above Maringouin, La., a distance of 29 miles. It will have a channel five feet deep and 60 feet wide. Its tonnage in 1917 was 237,947 tons. Bayou Teche is 125 miles long and joins the' Atchafalaya River 10% miles above ).for gan City. It is to have a channel six feet deep and 50 feet wide from its mouth to Arnaud rine, La., a distance of miles. It is to have a dam and lock at Keystone Plantation 72% miles above its mouth and other rmitlat ing works. In 1917 its tonnage was 693.622 tons, but that passing Keystone lock was only 10,172 tons. The Atchafalaya River, an outlet of both the Mississippi and the lied was provided with a channel from a point 17% miles below Morgan City to its mouth in Atchafalaya Bay, from 1,500 to 3,000 feet in width and from 20 to 140 feet in depth. The last improvement was from the 20-foot contour four miles below its mouth to the 20 foot contour in the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of isg miles to give It a ship channel 20 feet deep and 200 feet wide The channel from Morgan City down will have a minimum' depth of 14 feet and a width of 200 feet. The ton nage at Morgan City in 1917 was 814.713 tons and was carried in vessels of not exceeding 11 feet draft. Vermillion River is to have a channel five feet in depth and 40 feet on the bottom from Vermillion Bay to Lafayette. La., a distance of 51 miles. Its tonnage in 1917 was 32,810 tons. Mermenteau River is 717/, miles long and is being improved its entire length and through Lake Arthur six miles, as also are 25 miles of Bayou Nezpique, its tributary, and Mud Lake, all in Louisiana, which has a score of navigable waterways. The lower reaches of the Bayou Queue de Tortue, also a tributary of the Mermenteau, is being improved for a distance of 14 miles above its month. The lower section of the Bayou Plauqemine Brute, another tributary of the Mermenteau, is being improved for a distance of 19 miles so as to. have a channel six feet deep and 60 feet wide.' Calcasieu Riser widens out and forms a lake of the same name 25 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. The lake is 18 miles long and shallow. The riser, including the lake, is pro sided with a channel for 72 miles, which is the bead of boat navigation of not less than six feet in depth. This improvement is carried through Lake Charles and West Lake, where there are several wharves and boathouses. The mouth of the bayou is also protected by two converging jetties one and one-half miles long projecting out into the Gulf and there is a channel between them 200 feet wide and 12 feet deep up to the entrance into the river. The channel from that point to a point above Calcasieu Lake is 80 feet wide and eight feet deep. The tonnage over that waterway in 1917 was 763,619 tons.