Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-10-27
TRANSVERSE SECTION SHOWING BAsCULE,
PIER AND TOWER.

last session and that like resolution
only lacked a very few votes of pass
ing the house. The matter, however,
was agitated in the closing days of
congress, when there was not sufficient
time or opportunity to bring before all
members of the house either the pro-
priety of erecting a suitable memorial
TO American patriotism at the national
capital, the necessity of such struc-
ture or the adaptability of the pro-
posed plans. The effort to secure the
appropriation was therefore lost by a
very narrow majority, and it was then
understood that favorable action was
delayed only until the reconvening of
congress in December.
Some changes have been made in the
plans recommended and approved by
the chief engineers of the United States
army and by the secretary of war The
width of the bridge has been made 81
feet, thus providing a roadway 60 feet
wide and promenades on either side
each u feet in width. There has also
been some change in the detail of the
bascule span, between the memorial
towers, which furnishes the movable
part of the structure for the accommo-
dalton of navigation. This bascule
opening is placed in the center of the
river, the channel naturally and neces-
sarily taken by vessels passing either
way across the line of the bridge. 1t
consists of two parts formed by divid-
ing that portion of the structure be-
tween the memorial towers at the CEN
ter of the span. Each leaf of the bas-
cule is hinged on a large horizontal
shaft at the base of the memorial tow
er and is thus concealed in the mason
ry, but is so placed that each half of
the bascule may at any time be raised
in a vertical position alongside the face
of the tower. There is no other device
of forming a movable portion of
bridge for the accommodation of navi-
CATION with results so graceful or salts
factory as the bascule. The ordinary
draw span or swinging span revolves
in horizontal plane about vertical
axis. 1t not only occupies a large
amount of horizontal area, but is al
ways inartistic, however carefully it
may be designed. 1t is therefore graf
flying that the beauty of the structure
will not be married by the ordinary
drawbridge.
In the revised plans the lower chords
or lower lines of the bascule opening
are made curved. closely resembling an
arch. This curvature, although some
what similar to that of the arches, is
yet made of different degree so as to
involve the element of truth that the
bascule is, strictly speaking, not an
arch, but the treatment is such as to
give an agreeable and harmonious eff
feet in its relation to the entire struc-
ture.
Speaking of the location Of the me-
mortal towers and bascule, Engineer
Burr of the board of award says: at
has been suggested in some quarters
that it would have been more appropri-
ate and advisable TO place the memo
rial towers, the most prominent fea-
lures Of the entire work, at either
end of the structure. This suggestion
however. arises from very serious if
not complete misconception as to the
character and purposes of the work
The bascule. or movable part of the
bridge, is by the imperative necessity
of the situation a distinct and pro-
nounced structural feature, having its
own functions radically different from
those of the adjoining spans, and arts
ing from the necessary demands of
navigation. 1t would therefore be a
violation, both of the structural ele
ments of the composition and those
which relate exclusively to aesthetic
motives, TO ignore such feature of the
work Indeed, to have ignored it would
have been to incorporate in the compo-
sition a direct untruth. Having given,
therefore, the imperative condition of a
distinct structural feature at the most
prominent portion of the entire con-
structien-namely, in the center of the
rjver--the correct principles Of art re-