Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-11-13
FALSE WORK DAMAGED.
The Towboat Morsn Tears Out a Lot o.
Smiles,

spiles.
About half-past ten o'clock yesterday
morning the PittsSurg towboat John
Moren, coming down the river with a tow
Of coal-boa.s, struck the false work on the
cas-! side of the channel span of the Union
railroad bridge. The collision was a hard
one, although an effort had been made TO
check the momentum OF the boat by back.
ing the engine, and about one. quarter OF
the piling supporting the false wcrk wss
torn away and some of the timbers floated
off down the river. The boats suffered no
material damsge, and the steamer pro-
ceeded right along, bat the loss to the
bridge contractor will be considerable, and
in addition the work of getting up the
supersiructure will be somewhat delayed.
Last evening" Engineer Durham put the
loss at s., 800 to So, 600.
When the work Of putting in the false
work for the channelspan was commenced,
tie workmen began driving piles at the
"a { channel pier, working ont toward the
middle of the river When about half the
distance of 525 feet between the piers bad
been covered, the contractors stopped and
announced they would 90 no farther into
the channel, but would proceed to carry
the false work up to grade and would
erect the east half Of the span complete, be-
fore closing the west half. At the extrem-
ity of the rows Of piles q series of clusters
Of timbers were driven into the bed of the
river, these being intended as a temporary
pier, designed to support the east half Of
the superstructure OF the channel span,
while the false work was torn ont and
moved over 10 the west half. When that
portion Of the span wac completed il was
the intention to unite the two halves Of the
span, and then tear the central temporary
pier out, leaving the channel clear for the
whole distance Of 525 feet between the
channel pi;Is.
1t was the pilibg for this temporary pier
which was torn ont by the Moren, yester-
day morning. Work was not delayed uron
the remainder OF the false work, bat new
spiles for the temporary pier will have 10
be put in, and this will probably have TO
be delayed until the river falls, which will
probably be some time, at this season OF
the year.
Capt Moren, the owner Of the boat,
landed here when the boat come down to
the wharf, and took the train to Oincin-
natl last evening. In a conversation he
said:
The collision WAS entirely accidental
Or rather, it was inevitable that the boat
should strike either the stone pier or the
wooden piling, and rs a choice Of the two
evils, told the pilot TO let her hit the
timberipg We would have gone through
clear and clean if it had been possible TO
do so. 1t was pretty foggy along the
river, last night, and We laid mp at New
Cumberland. We started out before the
river was entirely clear Of fog, and the TOW
being heavy one, the pilots had coed
deal OF trouble. Above the railroad piers
the boat got a side swing, and we could
not be straightened up in time. We would
have hit the stone piers if the pilot had
not pulled her around into the timbers
When | tell You the opening between the
end Of the false work and the piers was
only $50 feet wide, and that our tow was
over 100 feet wide, you will readily see
the difficulties of going through without
touching"