rate. Such dams, in addition to their flood control function, commonly have many collateral benefits. An outstanding example of recent large-scale flood control work is that in the Missouri Valley. Between 1881 and 1952 inclusive there were twelve great floods on the Missouri. Damage totaled billions, and hundreds of lives were lost. In the early 1930's the Corps of Engineers began preparing plans for basin-wide development, and built giant Fort Peck Dam-by far the largest dam in the world-in Montana. In 1944 Congress adopted a plan which combined the recommendations of the Corps and the Bureau of Reclamation. Under this plan the Corps is mainly responsible for flood control and navigation work on the main stream of the Missouri, while the Bureau builds developments, including irrigation, upstream on the tributaries. The Corps' portion of the plan is about half finished. Three more great dams have been built on the main streamGarrison, Fort Randall, and Gavins Point; a fourth, Oahe Dam, is under construction; and only Big Bend Dam remains to be undertaken. Oahe, Garrison, and Fort Randall are respectively the second, third, and fourth largest dams in the world. With the main stem of the Missouri substantially under control, stabilization of the channel and improvement of navigation in the lower reaches are now under way. However, much flood control and other improvement work remains to be done on the tributaries, including the destructive Kansas River. SCALE OF NAVIGATION AND FLOOD CONTROL WORK. Among the accomplishments of the Corps in these fields are Construction and operation of 28,600 miles of waterways, comprising the most extensive navigation system in the world. These waterways carried 220 billion ton-miles of freight in 1956, an increase of 101 percent in the past quarter century. Indicative of the effect of this development, together with flood control, water supply, and other project benefits, is the establishment of some 2,500 industrial plants along the canalized Ohio River since the end of World War II. of Construction and maintenance about 300 coastal harbors, through which were shipped 495.7 million tons of freight in 1956, exclusive of intraport and local shipments; a gain of 77 percent in the past quarter century. Completion, or placing in partial operation, of 391 flood control projects, which are now preventing an estimated average of $491 million in flood damages each year, in addition to the protection of life. In the limited time that most Federal flood control works have been in operation-about 11 years on the average they have prevented an estimated $7 billion in flood damages, or more than twice the total appropriations for flood control works to date. Installation of 4,025,400 kilowatts of hydro-electric power capacity, now in actual use on 25 projects; with an ultimate total capacity, in authorized projects in the active civil works program, of about 13 million kilowatts. Inclusion of 940,000 acre feet of water supply storage in 13 reservoirs for 30 municipalities; negotiations are under way for similar service for 10 more communities. Provision, at reservoirs, of 1.5 million acres of permanent water habitat, and 2 million acres of shoreline, for fish and other wildlife and for recreational development by States and communities. Corps of Engineers reservoirs in 1955 attracted over 61,900,000 "visitor days" of recreational use by the public. STATISTICAL DATA. The following table shows the tonnage of cargo handled at certain of our large seaports and Great Lakes ports during calendar year 1955 The following table shows the tonnage of cargo moved over certain of our major inland waterways during calendar year 1955— Inland Waterway Upper Bay, New York Harbor, N.Y. Detroit River, Mich. St. Marys River, Mich. St. Clair River, Mich. Channels in Lake St. Clair, Mich. St. Marys Falls Canal, Mich. & Ontario New York & New Jersey Channels, N.Y. & N.J. Mississippi River (Minneapolis to Passes) Delaware River, Del., Pa., & N.J. Lower Entrance Channel, New York Harbor, N.Y. Ohio River (Pittsburgh to Mouth) Sabine-Neches Waterway, Tex. East River, N.Y. Patapsco River, Md. Hudson River, N.Y. and N.J. Cargo (Short tons) 133,663,668 132,507,367 119,434,263 119,320,917 118,185,078 114,648,927 95,166,926 94,041,765 88,579,871 85,270,018 71,461,178 56,233,895 48,868,517 45,823,878 44,750,436 41,378,856 37,617,975 24,330,003 19,841,452 Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (Apalachee Bay, Fla., to the Mexican Border) Port Aransas-Corpus Christi Waterway, Tex. OTHER CIVIL WORKS. Among a great number of other civil works achievements of the Army Engineers, the following may be mentioned The Panama Canal. The first step toward construction of the Canal was taken in 1879 in Paris. The driving force behind the idea was Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer who built the Suez Canal. Preliminary work began in 1880, private French capital financing the cost. The work progressed intermittently. By 1888, however, the corporation which had been organized to build the canal went into the hands of receivers. Numerous efforts were made to revive the project, but it was not until 1904, after the United States had acquired the Canal Zone, that President Theodore Roosevelt appointed the first of three commissions to do the job. The last commission was headed by Major George W. Goethals of the Corps of Engineers. Tired of regulations, the 17,390,360 President said he would "turn the job over to the Army." Goethals took charge in 1907, and remained as Chief Engineer until the project was completed in 1914. As finally constructed, the canal extends 47 miles from the Atlantic entrance in Limon Bay through a short channel at sea level, up the triple flight of Gatun Locks to the 85-foot summit level of the artificial Gatun Lake, across the lake to the outlet of the Chagres at Gamboa, through the 10-mile Gaillard Cut to the Pedro Miguel Lock, across the artificial Miraflores Lake, down the double flight of locks at Miraflores, and out through a dredged channel in Panama Bay to deep water in the Pacific Ocean. Built for two-way traffic, all locks were constructed in pairs. Each lock chamber measures 1,000 feet by 110 feet, with 40 foot depth. Some 275,000,000 cubic yards of material were excavated, an amount never before or since exceeded. The Alaska Highway. This project was undertaken as a defense measure in World War II. In March of 1942 the Army began deploying seven engineer regiments along the selected route. Construction began in June. Working under the worst possible conditions, the engineers hacked out of the wilderness a 15foot gravel road nearly 1,500 miles long, which was opened to military traffic on 21 November of the same year. They also built half a dozen base camps and camps for civilian contractors. In January of 1943 work on a permanent allweather road was resumed by contractors working under the Corps of Engineers. Despite heavy summer rains, the greatest floods of record on the Muskwa and Sikanni Rivers, and a strike on one section of the road, the last gap was closed and highway construction proper was completed on 13 October 1943. Beginning in January of 1945 permanent bridges were substituted for the temporary ones originally installed. As finished, the road is a two-lane, 24-foot gravel highway extending from Dawson Creek to Big Delta, Alaska, a distance of 1,429 miles. Washington, D. C., Public Works. President Washington designated Major Pierre Charles l'Enfant, an Army engineer officer, to lay out our capital city, and the Engineers have been important in the life of Washington ever since. Many of the city's public buildings and other improvements were constructed by the Corps of Engineers as such. In addition, the three-man Board of Commissioners which, under Congress, governs the District of Columbia, must by law include an engineer officer, the Engineer Commissioner, who traditionally supervises public works activities.1 Built largely or wholly by the Corps, or under this Corps supervision, were such historic structures as the Capitol; the Washington Monument; the Library of Congress; the State, War, & Navy Building (now part of the Executive Office); the Old National Museum; the Old Postoffice; the Pentagon Building; the Mt. Vernon Memorial Highway; the bridges over the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers; and the city's streets, water supply and sewage disposal systems, schools, fire and police stations, and many others. The St. Lawrence River Improvement. One of the Corps of Engineers' greatest engineering feats is the work it is doing as the agent of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, which permits ocean-going vessels to come through the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and connecting channels to the midwestern Lake port cities. Thus, using also the Illinois and Mississippi river barge facilities, goods going to or coming from oversea ports will be able to move the entire distance by water transportation. FLOOD FIGHTING AND OTHER EMERGENCIES. For the duties of the Army engineers in these fields, see chapter 31. ORGANIZATION. It has always been the policy of the Corps of Engineers to decentralize its civil works, military construction, and allied activities as far as practicable. Under the Chief of Engineers are 12 territorial engineer divisions, each under a division engineer. Among them they embrace the entire continental United States, and all oversea areas in which there are activities coming under the Chief of Engineers' jurisdiction. The divisions, in turn, are (with one exception) divided into districts under district engineers. In addition to the above there are a few special agencies. Below is a list of the foregoing, with their titles and office addresses. Office of the Chief of Engineers Engineer Inspector General Room 105, Building 211 Fort Belvoir, Virginia Atlanta Field Office, EIG Room 204, Old Post Office Building Atlanta 3, Georgia Chicago Field Office, EIG Custom Building 610 South Canal Street Chicago 7, Illinois New York Field Office, EIG Room 1102 346 Broadway New York 13, New York San Francisco Field Office, EIG 630 Sansome Street San Francisco 11, California 1 This statement refers to the public works of Washington considered as a municipality, but not to new Federal Government buildings. Engineer Historical Division 24th and Maryland Avenue Baltimore 18, Maryland Engineer Supply Control Office 410 North Broadway St. Louis 3, Missouri Engineer Maintenance Center 52 Starling Street Columbus 16, Ohio Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors Tempo C Building 2d and Q Streets, SW Washington 25, D. C. Mississippi River Commission Mississippi River Commission Building The Beach Erosion Board 5201 Little Falls Road, NW Washington 16, D. C. California Debris Commission 1209 Eighth Street Sacramento 8, California U. S. Army Waterways Experiment Station Halls Ferry Road Vicksburg, Mississippi Supervisor of New York Harbor 116 East 16th Street New York 3, New York U. S. Army Engineer Division, Lower Mississippi Valley Mississippi River Commission Building U. S. Army Engineer District, Memphis U. S. Army Engineer District, New Orleans New Orleans 9, Louisiana U. S. Army Engineer District, St. Louis 420 Locust Street St. Louis 2, Missouri U. S. Army Engineer District, Vicksburg U. S. Army Engineer Division, Mediterranean APO 30, New York, New York U. S. Army Engineer District, Middle East U. S. Army Engineer District, Gulf APO 205-USAF, New York, New York U. S. Army Engineer Division, Missouri River Farm Credit Building 206 South 19th Street Omaha 1, Nebraska U. S. Army Engineer District, Garrison U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City 911 Walnut Street Kansas City 6, Missouri U. S. Army Engineer District, Omaha 1709 Jackson Street Omaha 2, Nebraska U. S. Army Engineer District, Philadelphia General Services Building 2635 Abbottsford Avenue U. S. Army Engineer District, Washington U. S. Army Engineer Division, North Central U. S. Army Engineer District, Buffalo U. S. Army Engineer District, Chicago U. S. Army Engineer District, Detroit U. S. Army Engineer District, Rock Island Rock Island, Illinois U. S. Army Engineer District, St. Paul 1217 U.S. PO & Customhouse 180 East Kellog Boulevard St. Paul 1, Minnesota U. S. Army Engineer District, Lake Survey U. S. Army Engineer Division, North Pacific U. S. Army Engineer District, Alaska Seattle Branch Office 4735 East Marginal Way U. S. Army Engineer District, Portland 10th Avenue & Washington Street U. S. Army Engineer District, Seattle Seattle 4, Washington U. S. Army Engineer District, Walla Walla U. S. Army Engineer Division, Ohio River Cincinnati Gas and Electric Annex 315-335 Main Street Cincinnati, Ohio U. S. Army Engineer District, Huntington 237 Fourth Avenue Huntington, West Virginia U. S. Army Engineer District, Louisville 830 West Broadway Louisville 1, Kentucky U. S. Army Engineer District, Nashville 306 Federal Office Building 7th Avenue and Broadway Nashville, Tennessee U. S. Army Engineer District, Pittsburgh 925 New Federal Building Pittsburgh 19, Pa. 630 Sansome Street San Francisco, California U. S. Army Engineer District, Los Angeles U. S. Army Engineer District, Sacramento Sacramento 8, California U. S. Army Engineer District, San Fran cisco 180 New Montgomery Street U. S. Army Engineer Division, Southwestern 1114 Commerce Street Dallas 2, Texas U. S. Army Engineer District, Albuquerque Albuquerque, New Mexico U. S. Army Engineer District, Fort Worth U. S. Army Engineer District, Galveston U. S. Army Engineer District, Little Rock Little Rock, Arkansas U. 8. Army Engineer District, Tulsa Army Map Service Army Map Service Depository West Warwick, Rhode Island San Antonio Field Office 2100 North New Braunfels Avenue San Antonio, Texas U. S. Army Engineer Procurement Office, 226 West Jackson Boulevard Chicago 6, Illinois U. S. Army Engineer Center and Fort Belvoir The Engineer School U. S. Army Engineer Research & De- Fort Belvoir, Virginia Granite City Engineer Depot OTHER ENGINEER DUTIES Among these may be mentioned research and development; mapping and engineer intelligence; repair and utility work; and real estate activities. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. Like the other technical services, the Corps of Engineers is continuously engaged in research and development. The principal establishment conducting such work is the Engineer Research and Development Laboratories (ERDL) at Fort Belvoir (Va.); including outlying activities, it has a complement of 35 officers, 186 enlisted men and 1,521 civilin ians. Other installations engaged R. & D. work are the Army Map Serv ice, Washington, D. C.; the Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg (Miss.); the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment, Wilmette (Ill.); and the Ohio River Division Laboratories, Cincinnati. The engineer R. & D. program covers five principal fields: construction, mapping and terrain investigation, combat support, supply support, and nuclear energy. Construction, the largest, deals with the design and development of equipment, buildings, and bridges, and the development of hydraulic and structural design criteria. Combat support is the second largest; it includes develop |