The Struggle to Save the Harbor

The problem of the preservation of the harbor is now forcing itself upon the ingenuity of engineers in this part of Washington, for the reason that the dynamic element has to be dealt with and offers no better solution than that found elsewhere. The perplexing question is what to do with the troublesome silt, for they have no way to divert it nor to carry it out to where it will be only to get it under control and turn it to benefit instead of injury. It is observable that the principal precipitation has taken place along the city side of the bay, although the main current of the river seems to set upon the opposite shore. This is perhaps because the prevailing winds of winter—the season when the silt is mostly brought down—are generally from the southwest, which drives the turbid current upon the eastern shore and into the cove below town. About a half a mile above town a bar has been formed, almost making an island running some distance out from the shore, which may have been the unintentional inciting plain of the battle between the river and the tide setting in around the point. There are two plans for the better regulation of this matter. One is by means of piling along the foreland below where it is desired to build up, the piles being joined together by walers, and sustained against the normal force of the tides on the one side, and of the currents on the other by means of slanting braces. An alternative arrangement would be to concentrate all the currents of the river into one channel, flowing with sufficient force and volume to clear its own way and carry it by means of a levee or jetty system so far down as to empty its burden into the basin of the bay where the depth is of a practicable depth.