The Navy Yard That Built a County

PORT ORCHARD, April 7.—There was a wholesale discharge of dry dock employees yesterday, twenty-nine being let out, as there was no further need for them.

The work upon the gateway is necessarily slow, as each stone has to be bedded, and every other row 'tailored to' so as to make the work solid and secure. The striking sandstone cutters are still here, and it is believed they will shortly be taken back, as the men now employed are 'granite-men' and are not as expeditious as the old hands.

Plans for the new office building and officers' quarters will be submitted on the 10th inst., various Washington City architects having been asked to present designs. These will be sent to the navy department and the best one selected, then bids for the construction will be invited. The successful contractor has to pay the architect's fee, which is regulated by the government at 3 per cent.

Capt. Morong informed the Post-Intelligencer correspondent that there is no doubt in his mind that before a year has passed a company of marines, with the proper complement of officers, will be sent here to take charge of the station. This will necessitate a barracks building, hospital, quartermaster, commissary and ordnance store buildings, and officers' quarters and parade ground. The officers' quarters, as shown upon the plan, are located upon the bench overlooking 'Basin No. 2,' known as Jefferson's locally. All these improvements mean an expenditure of money that will mount up into the hundred thousand limits, and will stimulate business in the whole Sound country. The advent of a railroad leading to the station is an assured fact, the preliminary line already having been partly run. The distance from the station to connection with the Northern Pacific system at Summit is only forty-five miles, and can be made in almost an air line, the route following high ground from Anderson's, at the head of the bay, and passing the summit level between Hood canal and Case's Inlet near Allen, on past Mason lake, touching at or near Shelton and touching the Gray's Harbor branch at Summit. Thus an outlet is found through to Portland and the south and also to Gray's Harbor. The route is, for the greater part of the way, nearly level, and the average grade will not be over 2 per cent. There is much fine timber along the line and but little undergrowth. At Anderson's, where tidewater is first reached at this end, the bay will be piled across, and a shore line followed down to the naval station. Local business would not at present support a railroad, but as Uncle Sam requires immense stores for his wards, and invites competition from all parts of the country, such a railroad would get its share of hauling from points south. Armament could be sent direct from the East without transfer by water, and the station would be a mere bagatelle without the heavy ordnance common to such places. Steamboat traffic between Seattle and Port Orchard will be increased and slow boats of the present day will give place to boats of ample accommodations for freight and give prompt service between terminals. Seattle can have no rivals, but is bound to have healthy, thriving suburbs, not the least of which will be Kitsap county, with its 'largest sawmill in the world' and the only navy yard in the Northwest.