The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-12-10
BIGGEST OF BRIDGES
Description Of the Great
Structure That Will
Span the Hudson.
MAMMOTH STATION IN NEW YORK
six Loaded Trains Can Cross at
One Time-Estimated Cost
s6O,OOO,OOo.

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| of the bridge across the Hudson River.
between this county and New York. has
| awakened enewed interest IN that mar
velous undertaking, which when COM
| pleted will be the largest bridge in the
world. The price named in the contract
is s25, 900, coo and the structure is to be
completed within six years after work has
been begun. The Union Bridge Company
is required to furnish a $1,000,00 bond as
a guarantee for its fulfillment Of the con-
tract and the New York and New Jersey
Bridge Company will retain Is per cent
of the price as a further guarantee. The
! Union Company will construct only the
bridge proper; the approaches, viaducts
and depots, the contracts for which have
not yet been appointed, will be built ~
others.
The foundations for the bridge will be
of colossal size and carried down to a
great depth. Eight steel caissons will
be sunk forming in plan an oblong s.
feet by 165 feet between centres of cais-
sons. t the outer corners Of this oblong
there will be four large caissons 81 feet
in diameter, between which there will be
sunk four 80 feet caissons. All of these
will be SUM below the water level until
they rest on solid rock $50 feet below.
The caissons will rise to within ten feet
of the water level and will be filled with
concrete. Upon these will be built piers
of solid granite masonry, which viii be
80 feet above the level of the water.
Upon these granite piers as a foundation
will be erected eight columns of the
overs. which will rise to a height of 5S7
feet above the water level and will be
constructed of steel plates and angles,
| strongly tied and braced together. Twelve
steel cables, each twenty-three inches in
diameter and consisting of a large number
of steel wires about three-sixteenths of
an inch in diameter, laid parallel and
bound together with a wire wrapping,
will be strung across the tower. The
wire of which these cables are made will
have an ultimate breaking strength Of
100000 pounds to the square inch. The
cables on the New York side will be
secured to anchorages consisting of ten
solid masses of masonry, $50 feet square
and $50 feet high, while on this side they
will be carried down through tunnels far
into the solid rock and secured to mas
sive plate girder anchorges. The twelve
cables will be hung in parallel vertical
planes and will not be Graded, as is the
usual custom. Over each of the outside
columns of the tower there will be strung
four cables and two over each of the
intermediate columns.
In order that there may be no defor-
nation of the floor of the bridge under
the action of a moving train heavily
/ Iao1aI fhn w.rtir ~ --oxslo
with two large stiffening ~trusses, each
one of which will be longer than the
central span of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Each Of these trusses will be 1000 feet
long, LIS feet from centre to centre of
~trusses, and 200 feet deep at the centre.
Their ends will be hinged where they
meet at the centre of the span as well
as where they rest upon the towers.
They will be divided into forty foot panels
and at each panel point there will be a
plate steel girder, 7 feet deep and IA feet
long, reaching across the full width of the
bridge from truss to truss. AT each
panel point the trusses, girders and en-
the main cables by twelve wire sus-
penders; one of which will be placed
Immediately on each side of the trusses
and two at two intermediate points.
There will be twelve lines of plate string
ers, five feet deep. running through the
whole length of the bridge, one under each
all.
Above each floor beam, and high enough
tc give headway for the trains, will be a
deep supplementary lattice work girder,
riyetted at the extremities to the vertical
pests of the truss. The floor beam will
be suspended from his upper girder at
two Intermediate points of support. Both
the top and bottom chords will be
braced to resist the wine pressure; the
former lightly and the latter very strong
ly. The trusses will be hinged at the cen
tire to allow for a lateral movement and
the wind pressure will be resisted by the
great dead weight Of the trusses and floor
system. The Xxi loads for which
the bridge is designed are 10000 pounds to
Mneal foot for dead, 1900 pounds to the
lineal foot for live load n about 1,60O
On the floor of the bridge will be a foot
way twelve feet wide and six railroad
tracks, the structure to be strong enough
to accommodate a loaded train on each
track at the same time.
The station and approach on the New
York side IS a tremendous undertaking.
The huge building will occupy the four
first street and Broadway and Ninth
avenue. 1t will be a massive building.
and Eight avenue and Ffftieth streets will
pass through It in an arched passage.
That portion of the building which is not
used by the railroad companies will be
devoted to storage purposes. The APP
station at an elevation. and for that rea-
son no provision has been made in the
plan of the bridge for vehicles. From the
station a six track viaduct will run west
to the block in Fiftieth street, between
Tenth and Eleventh avenues. There 1t
Will sweep northward by a broad curve,
and constantly rise at a grade of thirty
five feet to the mile. All Fifty-eighth street
the yiaduct will make another turn to
the westward until it reaches Fifty-ninth
street and Twelfth avenue, where it will
end at the bridge proper. 4
The imposing proportions OF the bridge
can best be appreciated when 1t Is re-
membered that the main span is more
than twice the length Of that Of the
Brooklyn Bridge. and its towers twice as
high. The beauty of its designs and the
fact that 1t is the greatest engineering
work ever attempted will make it the
greatest attraction of the harbor and its
fame world wide.
Two companies control the New York
and New Jersey Bridge. One is incor-
porated under the laws of New York and
one In this State. Ex-Governor George I.
Werts is Vice-President of the New Jersey
Company. When the work begins 1t win
enc appointed by the Federal Government
and one by the company. h entire cost
of the bridge Is estimated at $60.000,000.
Much Of this vast sum will be spent in
acquiring the land needed in New York.
as property in that section OF the city is
very valuable.
Much IN Little