Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-08-15
THE BRIDGE HISTORY.
The Rock Island Structure Now About to
be Removed.

The Rock Island Structure Now About to
be Removed.
The Davenport Democrat has pre-.
pared an excellent article on the his
tory of the Rock Island bridge, which
is soon to be superseded by one OF
the finest steel structures in the
country. The Democrat says:
ITO all outward appearance it is
as strong and serviceable as it was
on the day of its completion, but to
the inner eye of the engineer it is be-
coming weaker and weaker to such
an extent that great care and watch
fullness are required in the operation
OF the train service in order to
handle the traffic with perfect safety.
1t was not built to do the work that
is now required Of it. Since it was
thrown open to traffic in 1871 the
conditions have to a very great ex-
tent changed. Twenty-four years
ago no such train loads were carried
as now. The locomotives and roll
ing stock of every kind have been
vastly increased in weight, and the
number of trains daily more than
quadrupled The old bridge has done
fairly well, but it has Outlived its
day and generation. and must now
be removed and sent to the junk
shop. and a new and competent
structure arise in its place-one
larger, stronger; in every respect
more serviceable, and one over
which train may rush at a 4O-mile
gait. The old bridge is single
track affair. That was not the in
tent of the projectors of the work.
The board of commissioners, chief of
ordnance and secretary Of war rec
commended more substantial,
double track structure, but con-
gress, in its want of wisdom, fixed
the appropriation at such a low
figure that it was impossible to build
the proposed bridge with the money
named.
Planned for Double Tracks.
1.-The bridge, as planned, was to be
a double track structure with two
decks-the lower for railroad tracks
and the upper for wagon way. Gen.
Rodman, then in charge of the island,
pointed out the discrepancy, but
took the ground that there was no
need for double track bridge, stat
ing, that to build such a bridge
would be an injudicious expenditure
of public money, even if there were
enough in the appropriation to do it.
He, therefore. recommended that the
plan agreed upon by the authorities
be changed to single track bridge.
with the wagonway on the lower deck
and the railway on the upper one.
He figured that a saving OF $43,791
could be made by changing the rela-
tive position of these ways, and that
n much larger sum could be saved by
the single track plan. which was
entirely sufficient for all purposes.
The estimates as made out by
Lieut.. Butler at that time read a.
follows:
For double track bridge with wagon
road overhead NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 81 1884, So:
For single track bricge with wagon road
For single track bridge with wagon road '''O''
| DelOW ..-.................. g34 %
| hitCi Soiiic ucias, anu plenty o.
discussion back and forth. Gen. Rod.
mans plan was adopted, and thu
bridge built accordingly. but at Q
cost of about $65, 900 in excess of thu
above figures. or 1899, 291.
ut was said at the time that the
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific rail
road also favored Gen. Rodman'.
plan of a single track bridge, but fol
different reason. 1t thought tina,
while the single track might suflic,
for its own traffic, it certainly would
not admit Of the traffic of another
railroad, and hence it would have nj
competition in that direction. Ad
hitting this short-sighted policy tt
have been true for few years, i,
did not hold good for long. For the
past 90 years, and without any
bridge competition, the traffic of thu
road has suffered immensely from
the congestion induced by a singh,
track bridge. and for many years thu
Rock Island road has been figurip!
and planning how to get out of tn,
difficulty without entirely rebuilding
the bridge"