utes to thaw the holes for a pile,
when it was driven to the bottom of
the river. Little or no penetration
was expected, or secured, on account
of the large boulders of which the
river bottom was composed. The ice
was freezing thicker all the time
until April 1st, when it had a maxi
mum thickness of nine feet.
It had been expected that the steel
for this bridge would reach the site
in time to begin erection by the
middle of March, but owing to de
lays in the shops and the snow block
ade on the transcontinental roads,
the steel for the first two spans did
not reach Seattle until after this
date.
On March 15th the erection of a
three bent traveler was begun. This
traveller was planned having suffi
cient clearance to erect span three,
should we be fortunate enough to be
able to erect it on falsework.
On December 15th the weather
turned warm and there were two
weeks of heavy rain, the water flow
ing over the ice in the river to a
depth of four feet. Owing to this
warm weather Childs glacier began
moving forward, contracting the
channel and bucking the ice in the
river one-half mile below the bridge.
When cold weather came again, on
December 30th, the face of the gla
cier had advanced four hundred feet
from its position the latter part of
August. The forward movement of
the glacier stopped as soon as it
became cold, but the channel had
been contracted to such an extent
by this forward movement and by
the cakes of ice from three to five
feet thick, being turned up on edge
and crowded together that the water
in the river rose gradually from
April 1st, when the extreme cold
weather was over, to May 6th when
the jam in front of the glacier par
tially broke and the water in the
river was lowered five feet.
On April 1st the water in the river
began rising and lifting the ice and
falsework for spans one and two.
Men were kept on the ice below the
falsework with steam jets and chisels
welded in the ends of 1 inch pipe,
to clear the ice from the piling. A
large force of men were required in
this way night and day to prevent
the ice from freezing to the piling
and lifting the falsework, as it rose.
Even with the greatest watchfulness
the falsework would rise several in
ches in places when work would be
concentrated on these points. In some
instances it would not settle to its
original position and the blocking
under the steel had to be changed.
On April 5th, the last of the steel
for span No. 1 reached the bridge
sit->, and the erection of this span
was immediately commenced and
completed April 18th. The steel for
span two had been received in the
meantime. The erection of span No.
2 was begun April 18th and com
pleted April 24th. On Mya 6th span
three reached the site. On this date
the jam in front of Childs glacier
partially broke and the water at the
bridge site was lowered five feet, the
ice in the river settled without any
movement downstream and rested on
the shores again. The ice was nine
feet thick and still as firm as in
midwinter, with no indications of
breaking up.
In the meantime the falsework
for span three had been driven, and
considering the condition of the ice.
and that in 1908 with five feet of
ice the breakup of the river did not
occur until June 6th, it was thought
to be safe to attempt the erection of
span three on falsework. The reason?
for the importance of erecting this
span on falsework were: If it were
erected cantilever the bridge could
not possibly be opened for traffic
earlier than September 1910, and all
of the construction material and sup
plies for the remaining one hundred
miles of road to be constructed would
have to be transferred across Miles
glacier lake by a small barge carry
ing two cars at a time. For a large
percentage of the time there would
be so many icebergs in the lake,
from Miles glacier that navigation
would be impossible. These icebergs
would be continually damaging the
ferry slip and approaches, requiring
constant renewals and frequent ces
sations of navigation. Taking these
interruptions into consideration, the
capacity of the ferry would not be
sufficient to supply the necessary
construction material.
When the ice went out of the
lake the ferry slips and approaches
would be entirely destroyed and
have to be renewed at a cost of
forty-six thousand dollars. The prob
abilities were that the ferry could
not be put into operation until nearly
the middle of July, when the first
material to be transferred would be
span four, one half of span three and
one-half the erection device, a total
of 2100 tons. During all this time
construction on the upper one-hun
dred miles of the road would be
very greatly impeded if not at a
standstill.
The direct saving in the cost of
the-bridge alone, by erecting span
three on falsework would be ap
proximately two hundred and forty
thousand dollars.
On May 6th the erection of the
south half of span tnree was com
menced. It was decided to connect
the south half of this span to span
two by the erection device as a mat
ter of precaution. Two sections ol
the lower chord of number three
were put out on falsework and the
web members put in place, but on
May 8th before the connection was
made with the erection device, the
remainder of the ice jam in front ol
Childs glacier went out and the ice
in the river moved downstream car
rying the falsework with it to such
an extent that the outer end of the
steel then on falsework was thirteen
inches out of line. Hydraulic jacks
were used to lift the steel until the
connection with the erection device
could be made, when the jacks were
released and the erection device pul
led the steel back into line. The
erection of the remainder of this half
of the span was completed without
difficulty. After the completion of
this half of the span a careful exam
ination of the ice showed that it
could not break up until it became
rotten. The jam in front of Childs
glacier was gone but the channel ice
above was firm.
On May lith the erection of the
second half of this span was com
menced, working from seven o’clock
in the morning until eleven o’clock
at night. On May 13th Miles glacier
began moving forward crowding the
four miles square of nine foot ice
in the lake and the connected river
ice forward. This was entirely un
expected as in the springs of 1908
and 1909 there was no forward
movement of the glaciers until after
the opening of the river. The move
ment down stream on the 13th was
only two inches, but the velocity of
this movement increased rapidly
each succeeding day. The ice was
so thick that saws were useless in
cutting it, so all of the available men
were put on the ice under the false
work clearing the ice away from the
upstream sides of the piling with
long ice chisels. Two shifts of thir
ty men each were kept at this work
continuously, and succeeded in keep
ing the ice clear of the piling until
about midnight of the 14th when the
movement of the glacier became so
great that the ice gained on them
slowly. Both shifts of men were kept
working on the ice during the day
and until midnight of the 16th. On
May 13th, a little over half of the
second half of span three was in
place, and it would have taken longer
to remove this steel to a place of
safety than to complete the erection.
About 9 o’clock of the evening of the
14th, two loading beams at the top
of the traveler were broken by a
lower chord section fouling when the
lift was being made. By eight o’clock
of the morning of the 15th the load
was used for the first coat and R. I.
W.
At the point selected for the Kus
kulana crossing, 149 miles from Cor
dova, the Kuskulana flows through
a gorge having rock walls and being
190 feet wide and 175 feet deep.
The grade line was located with the
base of rail 240 feet above the bot
tom of the gorge, the grade being
level and the bridge on tangent.
The climatic conditions at this bridge
site are very different from that of
the Flag Point, Hot Cake Channel
and Miles Glacier bridges. The an
nual precipitation is light, winds dur
ing the winter are practically un
known and the tempedature is much
lower in the winter and higher in
the summer than that of the coast
country. The winter of 1910-1911
the lowest recorded temperature was
minus 67 degrees F. and in the
summer of 1910 the highest tempera
ture was plus 96 degrees F. in the
shade.
After a careful examination of the
site it w-as decided that the span over
the gorge should be a deck span 225
' feet long and designed to be erected
cantilever two deck spans of 160i feet
; each, to be erected on shore on each
side and to be used as anchor spans,
each end of the 225 feet span and the
adjoining end of the 150 feet span
i to be supported by a steel tower,
the shore end of the 150 feet span
to be supported by a steel tower, the
shore ends of the 150 feet spans to
rest on concrete piers.
In September, 1909, Assistant
| Bridge Engineer J. R. Preble was
sent to this bridge site to dig test
pits and locate bed rock at the loca
tions of the piers and the pedestals
! for the towers.
Practically all the country in this
j immediate vicinity is covered with
; tundra, (partially decayed moss and
I other vegetation) from one foot to
! several feet in thickness and the
l ground wherever the tundra occurs is
perpetually frozen in most cases to
bedrock, regardless of the depth.
! This made digging test pits rather
! tedious. They were conpleied, how
! ever, the latter part of October. In
| December, 1909, the railway was
j completed to Tiekel, 101 miles from
| Cordova, the track material and other
: supplies being ferried across Miles
| Glacier lake.
The cement for this work was pur
| chased in Seattle in November, 1909,
; the barrels being covered with can
I vas to protect the cement from mois
j ture. It was intended to ship this
I cement to mile 101 during the fall
and haul it to the bridge' site over
the ice when the river froze, but a
lack of warehouse room at mile 101
prevented this being done. Consid
erable of the track between Miles
Glacier and Tiekel was lain temporar
ily on the ground surface and water
flowed over these portions of the
camp about the middle of April and
hauling their blankets and tools the
entire distance of 100 miles, on hand
sleds.
As all our structural steel, cement
and other material would be deliv
ered on the south side of the river
and half of all material would have
to be used on the north side, a
1 Vi inch steel cable supported on
wooden towers built of spruce trees
in the vicinity of the site, was de
termined upon, for transferring ma
terials across the river. About the
22nd of April, the excavation for
foundation was begun and we also
began getting out the timbers for
the towers and for the falsework on
which to erect the anchor spans.
In excavating for the concrete foun
dations the tundra was first removed
from the ground and w-hen the
ground had thawed down about six
;nches to a foot this material was
*
removed down to the frost, then left
for two or three days to thaw again.
When bedrock was uncovered in
August, at the location of the tower
pedestals it was found to be so badly
frost cracked that the excavation had
to be carried down from six to thir
teen feet farther than had been plan
ned. The cost of cement delivered
at the Kuskulana river made pro
hibitive building the pedestals the
additional height. The American
Bridge company, who had the con
tract for fabricating the superstruc
ture, were advised of the necessary
additional lengths required for the
columns, but as the delivery of the
entire order of steel for this work
would have been delayed until cold
weather by having them make the
necessary changes, the order for the
additional column lengths was placed
with the Northwest Steel Company,
of Portland, Ore. The concrete foun
dations, the falsework for the anchor
spans and the towers for the cable
way were all completed early in Sep
tember.
The track was completed to Kus
kulana October 18th, but on account
of cars not being available to load
all the material and equipment, we
did not move camp from Miles gla
cier bridge site to Kuskulana until
October 26 th. Fortunately the
weather was .much milder than usual
and instead of the temperature be
ing from 20 degrees to 30 degrees be
low zero, it ranged from zero to 30
degrees above. The only serious
hindrance at this time was the short
age of daylight, it being only about
four and one half hours between
sunrise and sunset. This decreased
to about three hours in December.
On account of the extreme cold
weather which was certain to come j
before the steel could be erected, all
the boilers and engines were housed
and on this account and also be
cause of the great lift necessary to
raise water from the Kuskulana riv
A TRAIN LOAD OF SUPPLIES FOR INTERIOR ALASKA
ing beams were replaced and the
erection continued. From this time
the same shift of men worked con
tinuously on the erection until mid
night of the 16th when this span
was connected and swung, and the
traveler was moved over pier three
onto the falsework of span four.
By the middle of the forenoon of
the 17th the upstream side of the
falsework had moved down stream
until it was directly beneath the
downstream truss of span three and
a large portion of it had oollapsed.
The movement of the glacier had
crowded ashore large areas of the
lake ice, by its forward movements.
The ice in the river broke up on
May 23rd. Childs glacier immedi
ately became very active and in a
few' weeks had broken back from the
river until the face of the glacier
was in the approximate position it
had occupied for the last three years
and the river channel was free once
more.
Span four falsework was com
pleted, pony bents were erected on
it, a track lain across and daily
trains were operated over the bridge
beginning with June 1st.
The erection of span four was com
menced June 10th and completed on
June 19th without any noteworthy
incidents.
All four spans were covered wit'll
two coats of paint. Marine Tokolith
track from one to two feet in depth,
ice from four to six inches thick
forming on the surface of this water.
This together with snow slides, heavy
snowfall and scarcity of fuel on the
north side of the Copper river and
the necessity of preference being
given food supplies for the front, pre
vented us from getting the cement to
Tiekel until the middle of April, 1910
when the ice in the river had be
come unsafe to team over.
After the Ice tvas om ui the river,
the cement was shipped by steamer
j to mile 133, near the mouth of the
| Chitina river. From this point a
I wagon road had been constructed for
i delivering supplies as far as Kusku
lana and the cement was hauled by
team to the bridge site, a distance
of sixteen miles. The cement de
livered at the bridge site cost the
company $20.30 per barrel. The
first of April, 1910, Assistant Engi
neer J. W. Coovert with a party of
men left Miles Glacier camp for Kus
kulana. The train on which they
started was delayed by ice over the
rails, where the track had been left
low, and by the rotary snow plow
breaking down, so they left the train
about mile 70, and using snow shoes
pulled their tents and engineering
equipment on hand sleds to Kusku
lana, reaching there April 10. Fif
teen laborers and carpenters fol
lowed them, leaving Miles glacier
er. it was not deemed practicable
to obtain the water necessary to suit
ply the engines and the camp from I
this source. Accordingly a water
tank was erected on the south side
of the river with steam pipes leading
into it to keep it from freezing. This
tank was kept supplied by a loco
motive which brought the water from
mile 146. Two 2-inch pipes for
water and compressed air w’ith a
“live” steam pipe on each side of
them, were packed with hay in a
12-inch box, which was swung un
der a suspension foot bridge over the
gorge, for supplying w'ater and com
pressed air for the north side of the
river. Provision was also made for
blowing steam through the 2-inch
pipe as soon as a supply of water'
had been pumped across the river.
Even with these precautions, a great
deal of delay w'as caused by the water
and air pipes freezing when the cold
weather came. The temperature
during the erection of this bridge
ranged from 30 degrees above zero
to 54 degrees below zero, Farenheit,
the cold weather beginning the latter
part of November. The camp and
overhead travelers were erected and
work on the steel erection commenc
ed November 8th. Erection was car
ried on simultaneously from each
side by means of two overhead trav
elers, half of the steel, about 541
tons, one traveler and four hoisting
engines being transferred across the
river over the cableway. The steel
for the cantilever span being taken
out to the travelers on a track laid
on the lowrer chords of the spans.
The two 150 feet anchor spans and
the steel towers were first erected
and rivited, the fixed end of each
anchor span being next to the 225
feet span. After the anchor spans
were erected 50 tons of steel rails
were placed on the outer end of
each of them for counter weights
during the erection of the cantilever
span.
The plan followed in erection was
as follows: The top chords of the
two 150 feet anchor spans were con
nected by temporary bars to the top
chords of the corresponding halves
i of th«“ span to be cantilevered. These
bars being 4’ 9 19 32 inches c to c of
outer end of the shaft and held in
position by a yoke attached to the
outsides of the end shoes by six inch
pins. This arrangement held the
outer ends of the cantilever spans
a little higher than normal and
shortened the distance between low
er chord end pins, thus making it an
easy matter to drive the pin in the
middle of the center panel of the
lower chord.
After this pin was driven and the
midule sections of the upper chords
were in position and full bolted at
one end, the wedges were drawn
slowly at the same time jacking up
the outer ends of the anchor spans
and keeping the adjustable bars in
the center panel always under ten
sion until the unbolted ends of the
top chord came into position so 'hey
could be full bolted which was done;
A 13-Mile Tangent on the Copper River and Northwestern Railway
pinholes at the expansion end of the
225 foot span and 4’ 8 11-32 inches
at the fixed end, the normal distance
between the centers of end pins of
the two spans being 5’ 0". The end
shoes of the two spans at the fixed
end of the cantilever span being
kept in place by built up compres
sion blocks between them, while at
the expansion end of the 225 foot
span cast steel guides were bolted to
the end shoes of the two spans and i
a cast steel wedge driven between j
the shoes until the segmental rollers j
were turned as far toward the cen
ter of the span as possible. The
wedge had a six inch steel shaft 16'
long, longitudinally through its cen
ter, the shaft being threaded for six
feet on one end and held in position
by a jam nut at each end of the
wedge. The wedges were operated
by a reversible ratchet nut on the
aftei v.hich, the above operations
were continued until the span was
swung, the final connection being
made with the thermometer regis
tering 4 0 degrees below zero. The
temporary bars connecting the an
chor spans and the cantilever span
were then cut and the shore spans
lowered into position.
The travelers were removed and
the bridge ready for trains to cross
January 2, 1911, without any ser
ious accident having occurred during
the entire erection.
On account of the severe cold and
shortage of daylight, the construc
tion of the bridge required double
the time that would have heen eon
sumed under the vastly more favor
able seasonal conditions of summer.
Let the Leader do your job work.
DESCRIBES TRIP
From time to time Chitina Leader
readers have been enjoying the vivid
descriptions of the travels of Ora
Burrows in verse. She has been on
a visit to the desert in Lower Cali
fornia and has written of her exper
iences. She has already started for
the north, and will soon be in Chiti
na again among her friends. Fol
lowing are the verses penned by her.
DEVILS DEX
Say. 1 oeu up ter Devils Den •
Kind ’er lookin' round,
A takin’ in the sights up thar
Where the ol’ boy spiled that
gx-onu.
Why he jest messed things orful
And piled thet sile in heaps,
He pizened o' the water tew.
An’ gas through them rocks jest
seep.
Say, he jest melted o’ the stuns
And burnt the airth up slick,
An’ if you slip into thet muck
Why pardner, I bet you stick.
He must o’ ketched some feller too,
Cause I heared some arful groans
A sizzlin’ right up by my feet,
Whar I sot on some stones.
A kind’er plaintive little wail,
It sot my blood ter chillin,
So I moved on, yer bet I did
Fer fear I’d get ’er grillin.
Written at the old crater of Devils
Den.
THE PAINTED DESERT
The painted desert before me lies,
With it’s shades of green, and gray
and blue,
Its splashes of russet and splotches
of red.
And framing it all the hills purple
hue.
Its carpet of emerald, dotted thick.
With the blue and grey, of sage
brush hoar.
Its beds of shale streak the hill sides
bare,
And purple mists hang where the
skies droop o’er.
The heat waves dance in dizzy whilrs
Like the flickering gleam of a
fairy’s wing,
While o’er it all, broods a silence so
deep,
W.e hear lul a-byes, our dead
dreams sing.
The painted desert is ever a sham.
'Tis naught but sand, by sage brush
shaded.
Its purple mists, and shades of blue.
Are a lying mirage of blue skies
faded.
Yet the painted desert calls to me
In a language compelling, strange
ly sweet,
For its big and broad and it freedom
brings.
And lays it lovingly down at my
feet.
At dawn I look to the eastern hills
Where the day god kisses the
night’s tired eyes.
And paints the whole world in a
glory of gold.
And the desert, new colored, before
me lies.
And its life is awake, from the twink
ling sand.
Comes the chirping of crickets,
and sparrows call.
The rustling and creeping of small
things life,
And the cry of the lone coyote o’er
it all.
At night in the west, more glorious
still.
Is the sun when he bids the desert
good night.
And hangs his banner on hill and
cloud.
The desert mirraged, in his red
golden light.
Then the moon’s pale radiance, too
is lent,
i As an artist, with brush dipped in
silvery sheen,
She touches the harsh desert embend
ing lines,
Into dreams of beauty, unreal as
they seem.
So the painted desert calls to me,
In its silence vast and its freedom
bold,
Its glorious sunrise, and brilliant sun
set,
And it's moonlit nights, will my
heart ever hold.
CAXXOT PRACTICE MEDICINE
Dr. Joseph Wyerhorst was declar
ed guilty of practicing medicine in
Alaska without a license, in the
United States commissioner’s court
at Juneau, a jury of 12 men de
ciding such wdth a recommendation
for mercy, after a short deliberation.
Wyerhorst was fined $150 and costs
by Commissioner G. C. Winn, and,
pending appeal of the case to the
district court by counsel J. G. Heid.
bail was fixed at $300, which was
furnished.