The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1883-11-08
THE BRANCH BRIDGE.

tax payers of the county may be inter-
ested to know through the columns OF
your paper, that the Branch bridge is
about completed and passable for teams,
excepting a few minor details thereon
necessary before said bridge can be &C
cepted by the county, which will be so
accepted by its committee in a few days.
The bridge was newly built last sum-
mer by G. Vogt, under contract with the
town of Rapids and the county, with
stone abutments and piers, and built in
outward appearance in substantial
manner. The piers were q mere shell
built on gravel foundation, and with
quarry stone, the walls about one foot
in thickness and filed inside with cob
BILE stone, gravel, broken glass and garden
soil, laid in cement. The first pressure
the bridge had to stand was July 7th,
when two of the piers gave way. Then
came the freshet of July 21st, which fin
ished up the work of destruction. The
county board assembled in special ses-
sion on August 7th last aud appointed
committee of seven of its members to
investigate and report. The committee
reported in favor of the rebuilding of the
bridge.
A committee was duly appointed to
cooperate with the town board of Man.
itowoc Rapids in the rebuilding of said
bridge.
The committee after due deliberation
adopted plan of piers devised by Jas.
Noble, one of the committee, and chair
man of Maple Grove. And the contract
was let on the 10th day of September to
Hubbard & Noble of Reedsville, for the
sum of $3.50, they being the lowest
bidders.
The piers are built of 2x9 cedar timber
and are &c feet long from heel to point,
and are feet inches wide. The 2x8
timber is laid down and firmly spiked
with A. inch spike as often as Is inches
apart, and cross ties put in on every third
course of 2x8 timber, so that there is
four equal compartments besides the
pointed space at the up stream end
These compartments are filled with stone
and also the point. The abutment is
built of the same material and of same
construction, and in connection there
with is built break-water IS feet long
and feet wide, of same material and in
about the same manner, and filled with
stone. Such break water has in about
the center wing extending into the road
IL feet and also filled with stone, which
is intended to hold the break. water from
sagging outward. The bridge is built
40 feet longer than It formerly was, so
as to leave the water more space in case
of a freshet. The bridge is now 100 feet
long. The approach OIL the west end has
a railing So feet 'ong on the north side,
and about As feet on the south side. The
whole structure is coal tarred on the out
side, that is to say, the piers, abutment
and break water, and all the timber on
the bride. The approach is filled on
grade of one foot IL twenty, and the
depth to be filled between the wing and
abutment was from Is to II feet. An
idea may be formed of the expense when
we tell you that there is $4,000 feet of
cedar timber used in building the piers.
abutment and break water besides the
timber in the new span of 40 feet and
trestlework, and railing, and over two
ton and one half of spike, and angle iron
on the points of the piers, and an i'm
mense quantity of stone. The piers and
abutment and break water were built
from solid foundation from two to three
feet below the bed of the river, and all
the work appears to be done in a work
manlike manner, and the bridge is one
of the best wooden bridges in the county,
and credit to the builder and the super
intendent, lei. E. Hubbard. The town
of Rapids is bridge poor. There are no
hopes for that town to have a rest from
building bridges, there being so many
some of which are always rotten, SO that
there is rebuilding every year regardless
of freshets. The bridge expenses of
Rapids will not fall much short of s., 900
this year, although the county helps her
to rebuild the bridge at the Branch for
the reason that that bridge is chiefly used
by four of the towns west of it, and but
of little or no benefit to the town of
Rapids. OBSERVER.