Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-13
THE TILTED BRIDGE PIER
The Work Of Repair I'm Progress To-
day-ro be Completed In Ten DAYS.

Diver Robert Rogers was engaged in making
examinations Of the piers OF the free bridge
until about O'Clock yesterday afternoon. A
pretty thorough examination was made and
his report upon each pier, except the southern
one. was, as was anticipated, that they we re al
right
THE WORK OF REPAIR IN PROGRESS TO-DAY.
The failure Of the scov 10 put in an appear
ance this morning and other drawbacks caused
considerable time 70 be lost in getting TO work.
A force Of about fifteen men were employed
and the active work Of strengthening the DAM
aged south pier was begun to-day. Ii is
thought that about thirty-fve barrels OF
cement will be used in filing the break in
this pier, together with lot of rip-rap. A large
scow Is anchored near the pier, and upon il is
mixed the cement, which is lowered in bags TO
the diver, who deposits the cement in the
break and packs il with an iron rammer. Mr..
Rogers, the diver, is said to have thorough
knowledge Of masonry and has. on several oc-
casions, been employed upon such work as he
is now undertaking, and good Job is conse-
Quently looked for.
ANOTHER DIVER ENGAGED.
To hasten the repairing Of the damaged pier
another diver has been engaged. who will ar
rive on Monday from New York and begin
work at once. Each diver is to work five hours
a day, and il is thought by this means the work
will be completed and the barbados removed
from the bridge, allowing travel to be resumed
In about ten days.
CAPT. sYMoSs' PLAN OF OPERATIONS
will be followed by the divers in the work of
repair. The captain, in his formal report 10
Major Raymond, recommends: "That the
masonry washed out be replaced by concrete
made rich in cement, to be placed in bags and
Lad sr,o cnlp lu ,,.s.
The cement used to be quick-setting. When
this is packed in and all interstices filed M
as much possible with concrete would
then recommend that the, pier be protected by
heavy rip-rap, each stone to weigh not less
than a ton, on the upper stream side and along
both faces. would recommend that this work
be done Immediately by this department by
days labor"
Diver Rogers made his first submarine ex.
cursion for the day at about 8 O'Clock this
afternoon and saw that everything was ready
for the repairing material, which is to be-
lowered to him from the scow.
The Pier is Still Settling.
Captain Symons went over to the bridge this
morning to see how everything was getting
along. He found his men hard at work put.
ting in the concrete at the base of the settling
pier. In conversation with STAR reporter he
said that it was difficult to determine whether
the pier would fall or not. 1t was
still settling, he said, and if it con.
tinued at the present rate it would surely
fall in few days. He said his men, however
were doing ell they could to stop the settling
and were putting in the concrete as fast AZ
possible The diver, he said. had completed
his labors as far as the other piers were con-
cerned and had reported them all right. Al
the least calculation the captain thought that
| it would require a week to repair the damaged
pier sufficiently to allow a renewal of traffic. II
the pier falls. he said, Golfer dam will be bull
and the pier reconstructed