J. F. GALLOWAY
CIVIL ENGINEER GULFPORT. MISS.
March 30, 1933.
Mr. H. P. Ayres, Secretary, Spanish Trail Assn.,
Mobile, Alabama.
Dear Sir:
I notice there is c nsiderable activity at this time to push to completion the Spanish Trail from New Orleans to. Mobile. I know you have encountered many difficulties and that the high cost of bridging the numerous streams intersecting the route is a very serious one, and 7 am writing this letter in order to put you in possession of some facts which I learned in connection with a railroad survey from Gulfport to Covington in 1913, on which survey I was First Assistant Engineer,
I understand .hat the bridge across Bay St. Lcui3 will cost a large sum of money and the information which I wish to submit will eliminate eighty-five per cent of this cost, if followed. I understand that the final location of the Spanish Taail across Pearl River Swamp strikes Mississippi at a point five or six miles north of Loqtown, and if that is the case it will connect directly with the present graded road from Gainsville running Southeasterly to ’rcCloud'B Ferry on Jordan River. If this road should be projected still further southeastward it could be made to cross Jordan River at a point called Hickory Landing, The river at this point is about five hundred fe..t wide and has a maximun depth of twenty-five feet with a hard, firm bottom, the banks of which on both sides are reasonably high and afford fine approaches for the read. From this point to the Main County Highway of Harrison County is about four miles and the country i3 high ridge, pine land with no difficulties of construction whatever. The same is true of the proposed road bed on the west bank of Jordan River and a road constructed along this line will almost lie to an airline from Pearl River to the Harrison County Coast Line, The Bay St. Louis sector will also be taken care of as there is at present a shell road leading Southeast from KcCloud’s Ferry from Jordan River to Bay St. Louis, and will be approximately seven miles from the intersection of this shell road for the proposed route to Bay St. Louis. With the new route the distance from. Bay St. T.ouis to Long Beach will be twenty-two miles. It new requires approximately one and one-fourth hours to get across Bay St. Louis by Ferry and about one dollar and fifty cents ferrage. Under the new conditions, which x have suggestrd, the people in Bay St. Louis can reach Long Beach in less time and at much less cost, besides this the bridge across Jordan River will be better located and practically free from storm damage while a bridge across Bay St. Louis will be a continued source