St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-05
SUSPENDED IN MID-AIR.
PROGRESS of the Work on the Flown
Bridge.
TWENTY-EIGHT SOLID SPANS
A Triumph Of Engineering Skill Which
Will Connect the East and West
Sides of the Mississippi.

The work on the uptown bridge is
beginning to assume proportions which
give an observer some idea of the great
structure that is to be erected. Charles
Morris, the contractor of the masonry
work for the substructure OF the
bridge, completed his part of the con-
tract in July. Since then tie contract
OFFS of the superstructure have been pre-
pairing and arranging the de-
tails of their plans before conf
mencing to erect that vast iron
network which will join the bluffs on
the west side OF the river to those on
the east. Three thousand tons of iron
and 1900 rivets will be used i'll the
feet long from bluff to bluff, and will be
ninety feet above low water on the
north end and 200 feet above on the
south end. The substructure consists
of twenty-eight piers, OF which four are
Oh the west side and four in the river,
and twenty on the east side. With the
exception OF the four i'll the river, which.
are solid masonry, the piers are built in
pairs after the pedestal pattern. The
substructure is built entirely of granite,
i'll the strongest
AND MOST DURABLE MANNER.
On the tops of the pins will rest the
iron bentS, which are composed of two
iron columns braced one to the other.
transversely to, the line of the bridge.
The bents supporting the forty OF fifty
foot spans are coupled together, FORM
ing towers, which construction contrib
utes very materially to the strength of
the bridge. These bents will vary in.
height from rs to $50 feet, and will
support the twenty-eight spans of the
bridge, of which four will be 250
feet in length: one no feet, five 80 feet,
nine 80feet, two 90 feet. three 50 feet,
and four 90 feet. The shorter spans are
put together on the ground and viii
weigh, when lifted into position, over
fifty tons. These are longer and heavier
spans than are usually placed i'll posi-
ion at one time. TO aid in the work of
construction wooden truck or moving
false work, called ''traveler," has.
been built This immense framework
is $50 feet high and 70 feet square at the
base, and is the largest one of its kind
ever erected. 1t is built on wheels, so.
that it can be moved on a track and
used in the construction of all that part
of the bridge on the saq
EAST SIDE OF THE RIVER. =
The larger spans, which will extend
across the river,wilI weigh 275 tons, and
will have to be raised piece, by piece.
For this part of the construction a
wooden bridge will be erected, which
will extend from the east bank of the
river to the top of the bluff on the west
side. Three-fifths of the material
necessary for the bridge has now ar
rived, and work will be pushed with all
possible speed. so that it may be com
pleted by the first of January, the time
called for in the contract.
Engineer Horton, who has the work
in charge, says that there are several
longer and higher bridges, but there
are none so long that are so high as
this one will be-. The appropriation
for the bridge is $500. 900, and it will be,
when completed, one. of the finest speci-
mems of engineering skill in the
country. The bridge joins Mohawk
avenue on the West side to Forbes
street on the East side, and will form a
short and easy communication between
the residence portions of the two sides
of the river and also between the two
park systems. '2'-'t