Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-01-09
THE ICE-BRIDGE AT NIAGARA.
A Solid Span Sixty Feet in Thickness,

The Buffalo Courier, Of January ID,
says:
A Courier reporter was sent to the
Falls yesterday, and learned that the
ce-bridge became an assured fact on
Sunday last. 1t is really a child of
the great snO storm of last week,
which accounts for its uncommonly
early formation. For some days a
large amount of snow-covered ice
from Lake Erie has been passing over
the Falls, and about the beginning of
the present week old inhabitants be-
gan to look exp~ectantly for an ice
bridge, though it was at least q month
earlier han the usual appearance Of
this phenomenon. At s O'Clock Sun
day morning the accumulated mass of
ice came to a stand-still beneath the
new suspension bridge, and the watch
ers began to hope that there would be
a bridge with a smooth surface
thing unprecedented SO far as history
or tradition bears record. But the
hope was soon dispelled, for the huge
dam Of ice suddenly began to heaye,
grind and break up into fragments,
with a loud noise which is described
as being exceedingly trying TO the
nerves. At 10 o'clock there was a
second stand-still, and it seemed GER
tain that the bridge had been formed.
but at 2 in the afternoon there was a
third and more severe disturbance, as
the imprisoned waters exerted their
giant strength in an effort to be free.
The battle was a grand one. Vast
quantities Of ice and snow were caught
in the waters arms and tossed hither
and thither like ~playthings, fighting
and struggling with one another, and
grinding themselves to fragments in
fierce engagement. Great hammucks,
weighing hundreds Of tons, we're
pushed into the air, and remained
there as monuments Of the fearful bat
tie. Large boulders were torn from
the shore and swept into the stream.
and the solitary fir which was wont to
mark the landing-place ofthe ferry be-
came 3 victim to the warning elements,
though ordinarily it stands three feet
above high water. The slow, awful
strength of the infurated waters was
so apparent that it seemed as if they
must rend the great gorge in twain
and escape from their thraldom by
some new road but there was
only n gateway open for them, and
as they could not break the mile-wide
dam in two, they lifted it up bodily
and swept away beneath, still raging.
but completely conquered by the
armies Of the frost king. Having sue.
cumbed to this inevitable humiliation
the water allowed the ice to rest above
it, accepting the yoke which it could
not break despite its boosted strength
And now the victor rests quietly
torn and ragged, it is trne, but irwin
chile and so it will remain until the
mightier beams Of the spring sun de.
priye it Of its strength and once more
restore Niagara TO its accustomed free.
dom. The bridge is nearly a mile II
length, extending from a line draw
perpendicularly to Point Lookout IN
the American Park, halfway to tho
railroad bridge, and filling the goIgo
from shore to shore.
The icy mountain is still in its com.
parative infancy, but if the wind and
mercury are favorable it will soon BIZ
in a condition to form a coasting hill
for the people as it did during tho
winter Of 1875. The great ice bridge
itself is a counterpart in miniature o.
an Alpine glacier, and fully as inter.
esting as il ten days Of sea-Sickness
were a necessary preliminary to seeing
il. You have the rough, broken sur.
face, the hammocks reaching ten, ff
teen, twenty feet into the air, tn,
startling assures gaping, perhaps, with
a depth Of thirty feet in the solid ice
and you have the pure snow ice itsel.
in a million strange and inexplicabll
shapes but there is an association o
terror in this place which does not be
long to the genuine glacier, and which
may come from the muhled roar ofthl
waterfall perchance the thought o
200 feet Of water seething and boiling
beneath your feet. Many of our read
ers have stood on the bank beside tn,
whirlpool rapids and seen tho wrathfu
water mount upward toward the SIX,
in a thousand contending currents a
they battle to escape from their pris
oning walls. Imagine this agitate,
surface suddenly becoming petrifed
and every broken wave hating jus
where il was, aAd this will give an idei
Of the bridge. Figures are poor make
shifts for assisting the imagination I,
work, but they will perhaps assist
little in giving an idea Of The magni
tude Of this structure. In thickness
it is probably about sixty feet, Will
the surface Of the ice is at least hal
that distance from the surface Of tn
water. There are crevioes TWENTY-FIVE
OF thirty feet in depth, aud yet the.
show no signs Of water. As we havr
said before, the surface Of the ice
bridge Cor ice-feld, for il is reall'