The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-16
GREAT NORTHERN BRIDGES.
Splendid Structures Crossing the Two
Medicine and Cut Bank.

KAIIsPELL, Mont. March 15.-TSpecial.1
Among the most attractive and most i'm
presslve sights along the Pacific extension
of the Great Northern railroad through
Montana are the great bridges the most
noted Of which are the Two Medicine and
the Cut Bank. When one knows that they
are perfectly safe, and that the weight of
the heaviest train is not the slightest tax
upon their strength, he can admire them
without q feeling of timidity. 1t is human
nature TO contemplate the most awful
things that could possibly happen, and in
viewing these structures there is plenty of
scope for the widest flights of imagination.
The bridge crossing the Cut Bank is the
longest by 100 feet, but the one across the
Two Medicine is higher by seventy feet.
But few people realize the amount of ma
terial that enters into the construction of
such immense structures. Through the
kindness of the engineers | am enabled to
give few figures and details.
will first speak OF the Cut Bank bridge
The river is crossed at a point 126 miles
west of Pacific junction. The river derives
It's name from the nature of its banks.
which rise almost perpendicularly on
either side. The stream Is not so very
large but there Is every indication that an
immense body of water once flowed be-
tween these banks. Every effort of the en-
gineers TO evade crossing this river was
unayailing, and 1t was only a question as
to which was the hest place to cross.
When the bridge builders entered upon
their work a chasm 30 feet wide and 40
feet deep confronted them. The Job was
commenced January %, 1897. The struct-
IRE is of wood and iron, there being l.0l0.-
coo feet OF lumber and 40, 800 pounds of
wrought iron and ., 400 pounds of cast
iron, IN addition to tons Of truss rods and
other material. the figures for which are
not given. Sixty-two bents form the up
right supports Of the bridge The long
truss span directly over the stream is 10
feet in length. This is supported by three
packed post bents holted and sway braced
forming an immense tower The towers
rest on timber cribs I2x70, built on bed
rock and filed with loose rock. From the
top of the crib 10 the top OF grade is l34
feet, while the track is 10 feet above the
surface of the water. There are five truss
spaus on the east side and four on the
west, which are forty feet long. Others
are twenty and sixteen. Barrels Of water
are placed every eighty feet. The bridge
Is on tangent and on an upgrade of 095
per cent. Track was laid across the bridge
and the first train allowed 10 pass over
April n. 1891.
Fifty miles further west, or about twelve
miles east of the summit Of the Rocky
mountains, the line crosses the awful
abyss formed by the Two Medicine river.
The track lies along the bank of the river
for some little distance before the crossing
is made IS if TO avoid it as long as posi-
bile. and You have ample time TO calculate
the distance you would travel, and the
time it would take if fate ordained that
YOU should be prccipitated TO the depths
below. All at once the track makes s
turn and you are in mid air, with stream
of water 2i2 feet below you. There need
not be the slightest apprehension, how
ever. as 10 your safety, as the bridge IS
built TO bear weight SIX times as great q:
that of 4 string of locomotives reaching
from one end of the bridge to the other, :
weight never reached By the heaviest
a train.
The I've Medicine Bridge was com