"The Ultimate Paradox" by Thorp McClusky

Published in Weird Tales in May, 1945

hawser: a thick rope or cable for mooring or towing a ship

5 miles = 8 kilometers

3000 feet = 915 meters although if I were translating this into another language and wanted to use metric in that translation, I'd just go with an even 1000 meters.

100 feet = 30.5 meters

macadam: broken stone of even size used in successively compacted layers for surfacing roads and paths, and typically bound with tar or bitumen

Well that was a highly imaginative story!