Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-12-27
FRIDAY. DEC. 81, 1889.
The Rain and the Hailfoads.

The Rain and the Hailfoads.
1t must be confessed that these storms
are bringing the railroads face to face
with problem not easily solved. In the
spring of 1884 every bridge over the Los
Angeles river was taken out by possibly
the largest food ever experienced here.
The rainfall for that year was over forty
inches in this city, and it was at least
sixty inches along the mountains. The
bridges on the San Gabriel and Santa
Ana rivers were washed out, as they
were on the Los Angeles. In the Soledad
the damage to the Southern Pacific track
was enormous. That was really the first
season of heavy rainfall experienced in
this section since the era of railroading
began. In that year there fell in this
city, in January g. inches, in February
1887 inches, and in March 1885. For
the whole month CT March railroad com.
munication was cut off. atk
The lesson was a bitter one, such as
experience usually teaches. An earnest
attempt was made to profit by it. Enor-
NOUS sums of money were spent in the
Soledad to raise the track out of the way
of the floods that come down there in
these tremendous precipitations, when
perhaps as much as ten inches Of water
falls in few hours, and the steep sides
of the mountains shoot all these, as over
Niagara, into the bottom of the gorge.
These foods roll down the steep cafion
Is over dam, and nothing but the solid
bedrock of the mountains can Withstand
their fury. Unfortunately, these noun
tain gorges are not straight, and the road
and stream must meet at fire quent points.
1t was thought that the iron bridges put
in to span the stream would escape des-
truction, as they were put as high out of
the way of the foods as possible.
The rains of this month show that
these efforts TO make permanent roads
have not been successful. The total
precipitation for the month is greater
than for either February or March, 1884,
and the water in the Soledad has been
higher this year than that. 1t would be
extremely difficult to place the road
much more out of the way of the waters
than it now stands. 1t is difficult to zee
how the bridges can be made stronger
than these last put in. The full extent
of the damage cannot yet be learned, but
it will be interesting to note how far the
plans Of the Southern Pacific railroad en-.
gineers have missed success.
The same efforts were not made at the
crossings and along the courses of other
streams. The power of the water that
comes down the Tejungas Was we'll known
after 1884; but the track there was not
much better guarded after the food of
that year than it had been before.
Again on the Los Angeles river, the
bridges of the Southern Pacific were both
carried out in 1884, and were replaced
by similarly unsuitable structures. They
are gone again. In 1884 it was the
upper railroad bridge that went out first,
and carried away the Downey-avenue
bridge and nearly every other one on the
river in succession. So this year it was
the upper bridge over the river that
went out first and wrecked the Santa Fe
bridge and the Buena Vista.street bridge.
1t is very manifest that the principles
of economy demand that some effort be
made to span these rivers with bridges
strong and high enough to resist the fury
of the foods.
The bulkhead along the river in this
city is another matter that calls for the
greatest skill abiding in the engineers.
Poorly constructed as the present bulk
head is, it has been of the greatest pro-
lection to the city. In the main it con.
fined the food to the channel of the
river and prevented the inundation of
vast area, with the consequent destruc.
tion of much property.
But it needs to be made much more
effective. The back of the bulkhead
must be rip.rapped with rock to resist the
fury of these foods. The sand
melts like snow before q routh wind.
The wing dams, too, need reforming.
They were placed at an angle of forty five
degrees to the stream, which by reason of
its cross.channel course, frequently
struck these structures at right-angles.
They should be placed at an angle of not
more than thirty degrees to the current,
and then they will not form surface for
the water to press with its full weight
against the bulkhead and force it in.
To be sure it may be ten years before
such another flood comes again. Such
dispensations are rare. The only such
recalled were those in the years 1S49-5O,
1862, 1884. and the present one of
lS89-90. But there may be another dur
ing the coming spring.
The Rain and the Streets.