The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1872-03-30
The Bridge at st. Louis.

"AniocS tEe efeae thtSJs going quietly onward
is the TX of bridging the Mississippi River at
Ct Louis
The first stone WIS laid in this structure in
February 1868. il q Golfer dam, for the west
abutnent. Frcpl that time on the work has
been in progress, sometimes with few men,
sometimes with many, and at great cost.
There were peculiar difficulties in the work
1t must start from the rock, and the rock was
far beneath the surface. 1t must resist foods
and ice. 1t must be sufficiently high to leave
navi gation unobstructed 1t must be fifty feet
in the clear above high water mark. The aver
age depth of water during the building season
is twenty feet The deepest foundation below
the bottom of the river was for the eastern pier,
that on the Illinois shore, seventy.nine feet !!
The whole distance from the rock at that point
to the lower roadway OF the bridge was one hun
bred and seventy.four feet. Above that road
way is the carriage-way, horse railway track,
&c. When the water is twenty feet above low
water mark the current is near six miles an hour
The width of the stream, at the point to be
bridged, is only sixteen hundred feet. not half
from st. Louis to St. Paul
The necessity of going to the rock below for
foundation Is the peculiar action of the river
here on the sand and mud at the bottom. In
time of high water or when choked up with ice,
the river will sometimes scour out its channel to
. depth of eighteen feet. How much deeper at
extraordinary seasons one cannot tell.
The following incident illustrates rome pecu.
liarities of the Lower Mississippi 1t is taken
frem the Repor, of the Eugineer-in-chief of the
Bridge Company:
1T is a fact we'll known to pilots navigating;
the Mississippi twelve years ago that the cargo
and engine of the steamboat America sunk one
hundred miles below the mouth Of the Ohio and
was recovered after being submerged twenty
years, during which time island was formed
over it and farm established upon it. Cotton.
wood trees that grew upon the island attained
such size that they were cut up toto cord-wood
and supplied fuel to the passing steamers. Two
fioodf sufticed to remove every vestise OF the Is
land, leaving the wreck Of the America uncov.
cred by sand and forty feet below low water
mark where in 1856, the property was recover.
ed. Pilots are still navigating the river who
saw this wreck lying near the Arkansas shore
with her main deck scarcely below low water
mark, u: the time she was lost. When tie wrec K
! was recovered the main channel Of the Mis,i.-
sippi WAS over it, and the hull of the vessel had
| been cut down by the action If the current a,
the bottom nearly forty feet below tho level AZ
which it first rested. These remarkable but
we'll sttested facts" says the Chief Engineer
came under my own observation"
In stream SO capriciou-, ard so likely to ge,
out of bed, two piers were TO be placed the
larger one on base OF eigh'y-two feet by sixty
and its GROWING work 20 rise over two hundred
feet How could the foundations be laid VIII
could 90 underneath that mighty current to lay
the solid masonry on immov4ble rock, to d.fv
Hood, hre and tempest, and 'the envious tooth
of time = When built, who could pu. a span
five hundred and fifteen feet long on those sbu,.
ments that should hold itself and the immense
pressure on it
| Four years and one month the work OF build.
ing has been going on. One year ago, March
.Otl' lo'I, ot. Louis Was luOl!ant. The bells
rung, cannon were fired. The last, the fourth,
ths east pier, had touched bottom. "was found.
ed on rack" Steam whistles along Der twelve
miles Of river front shriekei in with ",he inf
mite fierce chorus This is MISTER of grea.
moment" men said, so "they praised the Lor,
with loud noi-e," A. the Holy Book requires
1t was half.past iour o'clock p. NJ, March 2Sth
could have culled bouquet of fresh leaves and
blossoms for the occasion from the gardens here
overlooking the great river, from the peach
pear, cherry and the lilac tree No leaf or bios.
| som now!
| HOW THE WORK WAS DONE.
A caissou with air chambers, on the principle
OF the diving.bel was constructed, and its ron,