Show AMERICAN COAST LINE 11 lie I nir lork mork of 0 bur bai ane eying lnor gotterson JB Jot terson roa in a message to cong congress con grebs iu in 1807 thomas jefferson then president of the united states recommended tho the surveying of the atlantic coast line of the country with a view to its adequate defense and also to the establishment lish Ilah ment of guides and safeguards to navigation congress adopted the rec of the president and made an appropriation of for the purpose the direction of the matter being put into the hands of the secretary of the treasury at that time albert gallatin who communicated tha the views of the administration to I 1 the scientific men of the country in a circular distributed in new now york B doe ton and philadelphia chiefly the plan adopted waa was to ascertain the position positions 0 of I 1 certain prominent points on the at count coast by astronomical observations and to connect these by lines the chief of the coast survey waa was a native of switzerland and the work went on under his direction with occasional 8 interruptions caused by change changes of administration until 1843 when ho tiled died the work at that time had been finished from pont po nt judith op opposite block laland island to cape llen lopen hi in delaware since then the work has been prosecuted actively but meanwhile it has been particularly ice the COD cession of territory on the pacific farm mexico the coast line of the country is now according to the report just completed nearly miles the land frontage of the country on the canadian and on the mexican border line being only 4 the details of the american coast line aro are as follows five thousand seven seyen hundred anti fifteen miles embracing embr aring 2 2349 miles on the atlantic ocean 1556 1 on the gulf of mexico and 1810 on the pacific ocean it is an est proposition among authorities in naval warfare that the naval strength of a govern mont should bo be proportioned to ita its coast line that rule may be said to prevail pretty generally though ruela rusta which has relatively a small coast lan line on the diack black sea and on the battle has a large navy anil anti norway and sweden which have an enormous lino line larger in proportion to the than any other countries of europe have very few war snipe ships the coastline of the united states is near I 1 ly as long as the distance from new york to liverpool and return by the ordinary course of ate travel and its protection against any possible attack has of recent years secured mor more attention than v as the cage before the reconstruction or more practically the construction of the present american navy new now york sun bun |