"I will now speak of the angular position of the piers. What is the
amount of the angle? The course of the river is a curve and the pier is
straight. If a line is produced from the upper end of the long pier
straight with the pier to a distance of 350 feet, and a line is drawn
from a point in the channel opposite this point to the head of the pier,
Colonel Nason says they will form an angle of twenty degrees. But the
angle if measured at the pier is seven degrees; that is, we would have to
move the pier seven degrees to make it exactly straight with the current.
Would that make the navigation better or worse? The witnesses of the
plaintiff seem to think it was only necessary to say that the pier formed
an angle with the current and that settled the matter. Our more careful
and accurate witnesses say that, though they had been accustomed to
seeing the piers placed straight with the current, yet they could see
that here the current had been made straight by us in having made this
slight angle; that the water now runs just right, that it is straight and
cannot be improved. They think that if the pier was changed the eddy
would be divided and the navigation improved.
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