Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-05

BRIDGE SHOULD BE RECONSTRUCTED.
Col. Hams will, in few DAYS, make a special
| report to the chief of engineers, stating the
amount of damage done to the work of i'm
proving the river front, under his charge dur
| ing the recent freshet.
To STAR reporter this afternoon he said that
| he had not vet arrived at any definite knowl-
edge of the actual loss but his inspectors are now
at work making soundings and measurements
| so that he hopes to be able to get very accu-
rate figure to send to Gen. Casey. In view of
| this fact he did not care to make a
guess now. but said, however, that the
damage would undoubtedly be greatly below
the estimate of $500. 900. which he pronounced
preposterously high. The flats, he continued
stood the food very well. and comparatively but
| little of the material was washed away it being
pretty solidly packed. The greatest damage
| sustained is in
THE FILLING Up OF BOTH OF TIE CHANNELS.
partly from the material washed off the flats,
| but mostly from the deposits brought down
| from above.
In sounding in Virginia channel yesterday
| the greatest depth found was Is feet, where be-
| fore there was 20 feet.
The worst filling occurred in the upper chan
mel just above where the flats begin. Both of
| the channels will have to be redredged as well
! as the sewer canal, which is probably filled
quite badly.
| The banks of the canal, however, of which
much has been said of late, stood the strain
| nobly, and really did great service in prevent
| ing more damage than was done.
THE LONG BRIDGE-wHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
ABORTION of the colonel's special report will
| be devoted to the subject of the Long bridge,
which has received rather pointed attention in
| his annual reports for several years past.
In fact. Col Hams has always characterized
| this structure as a menace TO the city, and he
| says that had this freshet occurred during the
| earlier spring, with the ice running in
| the river, the gorge that would have been
| formed at the bridge and the consequent back
| ing of the water would have been far more
| disasterous than the people here can imagine.
| OF course, he adds, the flats would undoubt-
| edly have been damaged to some extent had
there been no bridge, in this instance, but the
low structure, affording good resting place for
| drifts and wrecks, caused innumerable whirls
| and cross-currents that played havoc in the
channel and over the flats The old bridge is
| about 10 feet clear OF high tide and IL or 13
feet clear of low tide
as high as the Aqueduct bridge, which is over
30 feet or at any rate high enough for any
river tug to pass under clear.
| THE AQUEDUCT BRIDGE.
The colonel is well pleased with the manner
in which the Aqueduct bridge stood the COM
bined strain of the tremendous current and
| the load of thousands of people that
swarmed out on it to look at the flood. The
experience it has just passed, he says. proves
that its piers are equal to almost anything.
THE CoFFER-DAM
on the east side of the flats is thoroughly
intact and solid. Some of the embank-
ments between it and high ground
are washed away little and some material was
| lost, but the masonry of the dam is in just as
| good condition when it was laid.
| THE OUNCE OF PREVENTION
The subject of means of preventing the
flooding of the city in the future is being dis
cussed about town. but Col. Hams said that he
did not like to go into the subject just now
as it was a matter for the Engineer Commits
sioner of the District and his as
sistants to discuss. He stated, however,
that there are but two ways to prevent the
overflow: The first is to make the
| filling in, and the other is to arrange
the sewers so with valves and pumps that the
water could not fill back through them. On
| the whole, he did not care to enter that field
| yet.
He is of the opinion that the flats were of
great benefit to the city in preventing strong
currents from sweeping through the
lower streets and along the wharves.
In 1877 he added when there were no i'm
provements on the river front, the
river ran like a mill-race along
| But now, with the fats, planted with trees. to
ever in the streets, but the flood happily lay
| perfecty still