The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-11-14
YOU NEVER BUILT One.
So You Don't Understand How
Hard 1t Is
To Build the New KaW River
Bridge.
A Journal Special Writer Tells All
About 1t In His Own Way and It
Is a Mighty Entertaining Way
If We Do Say It Ourselves

OF course you have never built a
s135. 900 bridge
Comparatively few people have, and
consequently very few people under
stand that building bridge such as
Topeka is to have is. to say the least
that can be said Af it, some little trou-
BILE.
And the trouble is augmented a good
deal when you have to not only tear
down one bridge that is in the way.
but also to tear UP another that you
didn't know about when you started.
This is the case with the Topeka
bridge
The work has been on for two months
now and il viii be on for several times
Two months to come.
After the old bridge was removed
to It's temporary foundation for the
use of travel pending the building of
the new bridge the first thing to be
done was to build the Golfer dams
around the places where the fOunda-
tions for the piers are TO be built
A Golfer dam is nothing but a box
with the river bed for a bottom and
all outdoors for a top. 1t is supposed
to be water tight, but it isn't always.
The ones in the river now are not.
Al Golfer dam is built with a. pile
driver. Very few nails are used. and
no safety-pins. The vertical planks
that constitute its sides and ends are
the water is supposed to be pumped
out. But it hasn't been yet.
1t has been discovered that the re-
mains of a county contract bridge are
buried right where they are least need
ed and We're never properly laid out in
the first place This was discovered
when the Golfer dam piles began to
break instead of going down.
The story of this bridge and how it
peacefully law down to rest one night
and wasn't there the next morning,
after about three weary months of
burden IN the spring of IS, has been
told in The Journal before. Enough
of it has been taken out already to fill
two cars and there are several car
loads yet to come.
The first of the six Golfer dams has
not yet been completed. The second
one has, almost. The third is now in
process of construction and the piles
are being driven
The pumping crew has been at work
on the second dam for several days
pumping out sand, but it is resting
now Yesterday the pump struck IS
inches of blue clay, and it is a pretty
nerVy pump that viii tackle blue clay.
This is no little piston pump. 1t is
run by a. monster steam engine and
pumps out a stream of sand as big as
a stOve-pipe steadily. Each Golfer
dam has to be excavated from 10 to is
feet in order to set to a foundation
solid enough to fill UP with concrete
for the pOnderOus bridge to rest upon
This week, just before the pump
tried to run a bluff on the blue clay
and failed it started a collection of
bric-a-brac that may yet be valuable.
The first thing it sucked up was a
silver spoon which Mr. 4. T. Gaines,
the superintendent under Contractor
Keepers, took home with him. He will
have the word Topeka" and a picture
of the bridge engraved upon It, lit
will be souvenir spoon worth keep
ing.
The next relic the pump swallowed
afr ern eIa lrrn "A
time belonged to the Santa Fe com
pany and is believed to be the one
Captain Johnson threw away after the
auction sale at the Santa F'e depot last
year, which win be remembered by
good many Topeka. and eastern people
The next article on the invoice was
a spade, and then came two pieces Of
stove lining, and then 20 feet of old
fashioned lightning rod that is believed
to have at one time been the property
of a Mr. Burton of Abilene, and the
last thing was q. well worn paving
But the pump is bested only temper
arily and viii resume it's collection as
soon as the bed Of blue clay has been
dragged out, which may have to be
done with picks and shovels-
Mr.. Keepers has 80 men on his pay
roll, but only 80 of them are working
now. All are expected to resume work
again next week
AT present only the pile driver is at
work at night on the Golfer dams.
All of the men employed, with the
exception of the half dozen fOremen
and superintendent, are Topeka men.
The imported men are from Detroit.
Mich, and many of them have brought
their families here for a years resi-
dence-
Almost enough cement viii have to
be used in the construction of the
bridge to secure a temporary truce be
tween Mr. Prudential and Mr. Stein
berger. Already 1000 barrels of it in
20 cars are here, though not one-tenth
Of it has arrived.
No matter how far along the bridge
gets. no cement VIII be applied until
warm weather Cold weather and
fresh cement don't mix
The bridge viii be a long time com
ing but when it gets here it viii be
here for keeps and nothing viii be able
to shake it.
Undoubtedly the work has been put
back some weeks by the discovery of
the old ruins and it seems likely now
it will be finished just about in time
to be chirstened at the next Fall F'es-