Excerpt from Annual Report of the Secretary of War for the Year 1882, Vol. 2 of 4: Part 2 The object of this improvement has been fully set forth in previous annual reports, and is, in brief, to secure a channel not less than 25 feet deep and 500 feet wide, at ordinary low-water from the deep water of Hampton Roads to the harbor and the United States navy-yard at Gos port, immediately above, on the south branch of the Elizabeth River, to Improve the harbor proper by dredging at the mouth of the eastern branch, and for some distance above, and to dredge off the slopes of the flats at Portsmouth and Berkley in order to restore the cross-sectional area and anchorage grounds, which have been lost during recent years. Fdr details of the operations of previous years, I respectfully refer to the Annual Reports of the Chief of Engineers for 1878, 1879, 1880, and 1881. The act of Congress of June 14, 1880, appropriated for this work. A project for the expenditure of this sum, having in view the continuance of the general plan of improvement, was approved by the Chief of Engineers. Proposals were invited for dredging cubic yards of material, more or less. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.