Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1869-12-30
THE coFFER DAMS.
Progress OF the Work on the New
Bridge.

Z
: Bridge.
3 Crowds Of spectators are attract
ed daily, especially on Sundays, 10
the river banks, at the foot Of But
Ter street, on this side, and of Sar-
! atoga street on the Newport side,
! by the work on the piers and Golfer
dams for same, now in slow pro
! gress in connection with the Gin
cinnati and Newport bridge for
railroads, vehicles and foot passen-
gers. The work is necessarily slow,
at this stage, because it is at the
mercy of4he powerful current Of a
river whose only master is nature.
Every effort has been made, in the
use Of men and machinery, to push
; the work on rapidly, but thus far
only two Of the four or five Golfer
dams necessary to inclose the foun-
dations Of the piers beyond the
danger OF the anticipated rise Of
the river TO lay these piers 1t is
necessary to secure spaces in the
midst Of the river; and to obtain
these, the colIor dams are sunk
They are composed Of piles, well
bound together on all sides, sunk
to the ver-bed, and protected at
the-crevices by loads Of earth. Il
Once sunk, the water within the
dam is pumped out, and then the
workmen, toiling twenty or thirty
feet below the surface of the river,
lay the foundation and build up the
massive Snd substantial pier, the
pumps working constantly, in the
melnwh.l in emptying the leak
age.
In this way two of the piers, one
on either side, are now in rapid pro !
gress toward completion. AT the
works further out in the river, and
about midway between the middle
of the current and the Newport
side, q difficult task is presented
There the dam has been sunk, but
it has either found an uncertain
resting place on logs or a bed of
quicksand, for the water rushes in,
on the under side, faster than the
pumps can empty it, thus keel ing
the height of the stream the same .
within as-without the dam.
To one unacquainted with this
sort of work, it would probably ap-
pear one Of constant danger to those
employed at it, This. is not so
much the case, however, as might
seem to many. Each dam is al
most sunounded by floating and
anchored fatboats, on Which the
machinery and materials are stored
on one an engine, and the derrick
| it works, on another the immense
stones used, and on a third the
material for mortar and grouting. |
All the lifting is done by means of
the derricks, which together with
the pumps, are worked, in nearly
all their changes, by the floating
engines.
When we visited the works yes
terday, large gangs of men were
busily engaged improving every
moment offered.
The bridge, as planned, is of
wrought IRON, with stone piers,
five in the water, two on land on
the Cincinnati and one on the New
port side,
The stone work of all the piers
is to be of the best limestone, up
to the line Of high water, and free
stone above that, excepting the two
piers of the middle, or long span,
which will be entirely limestone.
The bridge proper will be of the
best wrought iron, in lower and
upper chords, uprights, braces, &c.
No timber will be used save in the
flooring. The Keystone Bridge
Company has the contract for the
bridge proper, which will be con-
structed after the popular and very
safe patent of Linville & Piper, now
in quite general use in this coun-
try. 1t was upon this plan that the
Steubenville bridge was construct
ed. AS we understand this patent,
any strain on any portion Of the
bridge is distributed over the en-.
tire superstructure. By means Of
the braces and uprights, the upper
and lower chords are oppositely
affected by weight Ten tuns of {
tensile strain on the lower chord
will produce a compressive strain
of ten tuns on the upper chord
the one effect, in a great measure,
destroying the other.
The floor of the main span will
be about one hundred feet above
low water. This span is planned
at a length of four hundred feet
the one next south is two hundred
and forty feet, and the others as
near two hundred feet each as the
division of distance will admit
There will be seven spans in all,
with the eight piers. Beyond the
Front streets of both Newport and
Cincinnati the grade to the cities
will increase, that Of the wagon
tracks being much sharper than
the longer and easier one Of the
railroad tracks.
The bridge will be forty-one or
two feet in width, with thirteen feet
in the middle for trains, one way
on either side for cattle and vehi-
cles, and on the outside of those
still, the passages for feet passen-
gers. !
j. H. Linville, of Philadelphia, is
the chief engineer and supervising 7
architect. Mr.. John G. Wilson is