The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-04-06
Grue Nortberner.
Paw PAW, MICHIGAN, APRIL q, 1877.

TORONTO, Canada, March l4.-The lnspec
ton OF the suspension bridge ut niagara is
virtually finished, and the official report will be
publshed in a few days. Every link, spike,
chain. bolt. anchorage and cable in the vast
structure has been carefully examined. and, as
lam told by one of the engineers. found TO be
AZ good as new. sound and reliable beyond
question. Whatever mIsgivlngs with respect
10 this bridge may have been created by the
disaster at Ashtabula. the inspection shows
that they had no foundation. Should The
mighty arch 60 down into the Niagara river
tomorrow, no coroner's jury could ever find
that the Great Western railway had not done
al that human foresight and engineering skill
could suggest to render such calamity i'm
possible.
This bridge was built by Mr.. Roeblpg in
1854. It's four towers are each 80 feet IN
height and constructed Of cut-stone blocks 18
feet square and the top 8 feet square, the cap
stone being 10 feet square. Each tower Is sur
mounted with an iron saddle with rollers upon
which rest the cables firmly holding the saddle
in position. The rollers allow the cables to
move easily, 80 that in contraction and ex-
pansion there is no additional strain upon them
or the towers. At all other points OF bearing
are cut-stone caps securing everything from
the action OF the elements. A massive arch
connects the towers some 20 feet from the
base above, which 10 the railway track, and
below, the carnage way. The anchor pit, cut
In the solid rock, is 24x20 feet, and "a feet
deep, with drifts for anchor plates, weighing
5000 pounds each, to which are attached CHAINS
with links $50 pounds each, which reach up
through ''gains" cut In the rock, where they
connect with massive wrought-iron shafts,
over the ends OF which is looped the wire that
forms the cables. The wires. brought to q
tension OF 1000 pounds, are looped upon the
shafts at the anchorage, which is filed with
nasonary and concrete, rendering it almost
solid rock. The wire for the cables was put
through a process OF boiling in oil, with a
gntinous mixture, being kept in the cauldrons
thirty minutes, and then dried in the sun. 1t
passed through this process three times, the
wire being thoroughly annealed and rendered
Inperviors to water. 1t was then spliced.
Zach cable is composed Of 5000 strands, which
is so spliced as to be in fact one continuous
wire, 1850 miles in length. Each strand was
lard with tension of 1900 pounds. AS each
cable contains 1850 miles OF WIRE, the four
contain 5000 miles. The whole weight Of
wire is over 500 tons, giving safe working
capacity OF II, 600 tons. IL is estimated, how
ever that the cables would easily bear strain
OF $4,000 tons. Connecting these cables with
the bridge are go suspenders, each Of ~ tons
capacity, with 30 guys fastening the bridge to
the river banks, extending from the center TO
the rocks IN such a manner as to prevent
lateral or lifting movement by the winds. 4
single train extending from one end Of the
bridge to the other with an engine and tender
weighing so tons, would weigh 1876 tons, 30
that at their mean bearing capacity OF $4,000
tons it would take forty trains one piled on top
OF the other to snap the cables.
The engineers will report that there has
been no granulization, no corrosion and no
settling. save the slight natural spring of the
cables. Cars have been passing over the
structure day and night these twenty-five
years past, and frequently one thousand cars
have crossed 1t IN a single day, yet it is abso-
lutely as sound to-day as 1t was when the first
train sailed over ii IN 1854.