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Show ments of this vital commodity made by the barge lines in conjunction, with pipelines, tank cars, and tank trucks, brought about one of the most efficient coordinations of transportation facilities ever seen in this country. The result was that industrial plants on the eastern seaboard as well as in the ^Middle West were able to continue to oper- ate at full capacity, people in frigid areas were able to keep warm, and combat training planes were kept flying. From December 1941 through August 15, 1945, the incredible total of 1,731,030,485 barrels of petroleum and petroleum products was loaded at inland waterway ports. A 10,000-gallon railroad tank car holds the equivalent of 238 barrels of petroleum products, so this gigantic figure is the equivalent of more than 7 million tank car loads, representing 72,732 trains of 100 cars each. These figures indicate the considerable extent that inland waterway transportation helped to alleviate the situation that had resulted from the wartime overburdening of the railroads. To quote a statement of the Office of Defense Transporta- tion: "If our waterways rendered no service beyond that of transporting petroleum and its products during the war they would have amply justified their improved existence." In addition to petroleum products, the inland water- ways moved a. large volume of many other essential war materials-sulfur, coal, iron and steel products, grain, bauxite, scrap iron and steel, chemicals, alcohol, and acids. All of these commodities were required for total war pro- duction and without inland waterway transportation for them many industries vital to the war effort could not have operated efficiently. The inland waterway transportation industry's success in the floating- of war vessels from inland shipyards to the sea was a remarkable wartime achievement. It had been found imperative, because coastal yards and docks were operating to fullest capacity, to turn to the interior of the country to meet the shipbuilding requirements of the war effort. More complete utilization of the manpower and production facilities of the Great Lakes area and the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys was made possible by the existence of improved navigable waterways. New as well as available shipyards and drydocks were put in opera- tion on nearly all inland waterways, and many types of oceangoing vessels as well as light-draft craft were built in the interior. More than 4,000 vessels were com- pleted, over 1,500 on the Mississippi River alone, nearly 900 on the Ohio River, and nearly 1,000 on Great Lakes points, moved via the Illinois River to the sea. Of this total there were many types-torpedo tenders, coastal transports, auxiliary repair ships, destroyer es- corts, barges, oceangoing cargo ships, Coast Guard cut- ters, infantry and tank landing craft, subchasers, tugs, submarines, and others including structural ship sections. All of these war vessels were safely and efficiently handled to deep water over the inland waterways system. Many of them, due to their drafts, had to be pontooned or other- wise floated and towed to the sea. No other type of transportation could have accomplished the feat of de- livering all these vessels to deep water. America's rivers and canals made possible through the years a widespread geographical diffusion of manufac- turing processes that otherwise would have been forced into congested coastal areas. It is a significant fact that, according to the 1940 census, the 19 largest cities of the United States are all located on navigable waterways. As a result, many of the principal production centers of the war period were situated in the interior of the country and were served by water transportation-Chi- cago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Min- neapolis, to name a few. Many industries that supply or use bulk commodities owe their development in a substantial degree to low-cost inland waterway transpor- tation facilities. Certain waterways contributed more than others to the war effort. In general, the long-haul waterways showed the greatest wartime traffic gains. During the war period, the total annual ton-mileage more than doubled the record peacetime movement on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Illinois Rivers, waterways that connect such large metropolitan centers as New Orleans, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and others. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, southern supporting link of the inland waterway system, was extremely valuable in the transportation of strategic commodities, particularly of crude and refined petroleum, and in 1944 carried five times as much freight as in 1939. Another outstanding contribution was made by the Atlan- tic Intracoastal Waterway extending from Trenton, N. J., to Miami, Fla., which provided a sheltered route for more than a billion ton-miles of traffic in 1942 and 1943, the peak years of submarine warfare, or twice the amount carried in the years immediately preceding the war. In the Ohio Valley are to be found the basic materials of this country's industrial economy, notably coal and steel, materials that are also essential to defense and the prosecution of a war. These vital commodities were handled in vast quantities on the Ohio River and the tribu- tary Monongahela River. Petroleum and other products also moved in large quantities on the Ohio River and its tributaries, traffic on the Ohio reaching a total of over 7 billion ton-miles in 1944, an all-time high for that river. Grain barges on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and the Illinois waterway were constantly on the move, with wheat and corn and other grains out of the Dakotas, Kansas, Iowa, and the rest of the Midwest farm States. The wartime peak for all traffic on the Illinois waterway was more than a billion ton-miles. The service rendered by inland waterway transporta- tion during World War II demonstrated conclusively that it is a vital instrument of national defense. Its per- formance in contributing toward the winning of the war more than justified the confidence of Congress in the Corps of Engineers' waterway improvement program pros- ecuted for and sponsored by the people, and more than repaid the Federal Government for all of the expenditures of public funds for that program. 424 |