He added: "We were able to
secure these better prices and conditions because the bond market is in
a somewhat better condition now than it was when we made the original
contract."

The contract was accepted on that date, and application made to the
Capital Issues Committee for the necessary permission. This was given
in due time, though there was considerable opposition.

The opposition, said President Thompson, at the Dock Board meeting of
February 26, 1919, reviewing the development of the canal plans, "was
inspired by vicious and spectacular attacks of certain private
interests hostile to the canal project and to the port of New Orleans."
Railroads, whose right of way crossed the Canal, were the principal
propagandists. They realized that the Dock Board could not be required
to build their bridges over the waterway, and although the Thompson
board financed the work at the time, they knew that sooner or later
would come a day of reckoning. The Hudson Board has since then taken
steps to collect several million dollars from these roads.

But why build a canal almost large enough, only? Why build a 25-foot
lock when ships drawing 30-feet of water come to New Orleans? A lock
cannot be enlarged, once it is completed--and the tendency of the times
is towards larger ships. Why not make a capacity facility while they
were about it?

[Illustration: LOCK SITE
Driving Sheet Piling]

[Illustration: LOCK SITE
Dredges Entering]

These were questions the Dock Board asked itself, and on June 29, 1918,
it decided to build the lock with a 30-foot depth over the sill at
extreme low water, and make the canal 300 feet wide at the top, and 150
feet wide at the bottom.

To do this, would cost about $1,000,000 more, it was estimated by
George M. Wells of the Goethals company--a sum which the Dock Board
thought would be realized from the rental-revenues of Doullut &
Williams and the Foundation Company, without increasing the second bond
issue.

This is the Canal that was finally built--nearly 70 per cent larger
than the one that was begun and about 100 per cent larger than the one
originally planned, when the newspapers and forward-looking told the
people that the lack of such a canal had cost New Orleans millions of
dollars in development.

DIGGING THE DITCH.

No rock-problem was encountered in dredging the canal. The cost was
below what the engineers estimated it would be--less than thirty cents
a cubic yard.