The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-06
A BIG RAFT
a Hundred Miles
Of Piles Tied
Together

The work of breaking up the big raft of
piles that the steamer Mineola succeeded
in towing down from the Column bia River,
a couple of weeks ago, is steadily progress
ing in Oakland Creek, and the huge chains
that go to make up the sixty tons of metal
that bind the gigantic mass together are
being removed one by one. 1t will be an
other week, or more, perhaps, before the
last one is loosened, and the thousands
on thousands of logs that comprise the
raft are safely stored inside of the boom
that has been constructed to receive them.
1t takes less time to break up than to
make up the great raft, but the task is far
more difficult in its way. The big struc-
ture is built in a cradle that rests in the
water and gradually sinks as the weight
increases above, and as it is formed
chains-hnndreds of them-are woven
into the mass to prevent it from being
twisted and broken by the action of the
waves while at sea. When the ponderous
cigar-shaped raft is finished as to form
huge chains are bound around it every
few yards from stem to stern.
These chains, of course, are drawn taut
and snug to the logs as they are put on,
but that is nothing compared with the
tension on them after they have been four
or five days at sea.
The logs swell from contact with the
water until every link is strained to it's
utmost with power from within that
nothing but the stoutest metal could resist.
To loosen such chains is only possible
by cutting the fastenings where the ends
were joined, and such a task is laborious
one when the weight of the metal is taken
into consideration. As the outside chains
are removed and the outside logs pitched
into the water more cables come into
sight, and they, too, are as tight as fiddle
strings, and must be cut to loosen them.
To hear of a cigsr-shaped structure be-
ing towed down from Astoria, or even to
see the raft lying in the creek, conveys no
definite conception of the immensely of
the affair to the average man. It is only
when figures are reached that the true
idea of the vastness enters the mind. To
begin with there are 560, 900 linear feet, or
over 106 miles of piles, in that raft.
Enough, if placed end to end, to reach
from San Francisco to San Jose and re-
turn, with a few extra miles left over for
good measure. Cut into inch thick planks
there would be enough placed end to end
to reach from one end of California to the
other and half way back again.
Then look at the length, breadth and
depth of the monster. She draws "a feet
OF water on beam of 81 feet and a length
of 528 feet and still feet project above
water. When she went into Oakland
| Creek at high tide there was just foot of
water between her and the bottom. To
have bumped on that bottom was to have
wrecked the raft right there and strewn
! the bay with piles, and it took careful en-.
cheering to place it here safely at
anchor. Then there are some interesting
figures connected with the cost of the
raft and the saving that was effected by
bringing the piles down in that shape.
Heretofore, up to the time the first raft
got through, it was necessary to ship piles
down from Oregon and Washington by
vessel or by rail, both routes being expen-
sive.
The raft that landed in the bay recently
cost her owners over 100000, but they
made $4,000 or more by her reaching this
harbor safely, that being the difference
in the price between ship rates and the
expense of making up and towing down
the mass. These piles were all carefully
selected as to length and condition, as
they are to be used in portion of the new
ferry building, and there are nearly 10000
OF them, enough to make forest of many
acres.