The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-04-04

| The commission Of engineer officers
| of the army having in charge the prep
| aration of plans and specifications for
| the construction Of the proposed new
| bridge across the Potomac 10 take the
place Of the Long Bridge. held pro-
| tracted session today at the headquar-
! tiers of the engineer in charge of the
| work 4 number Of citizens were pres
| ent and gave their views OF the char
acter OF the structure needed. The
! commission consists Of Lieut.. Col.
! Charles J. Allen. Captains Edward
! Burr and Lansing H Beach, and Lieut.
| George NJ. Hoffman. Colonel Allen had
previously invited a number of promi-
nent shippers to be present. and dele
| cations from Washington and Alexap-
dria were on hand The Virginians
represented Alexandria county. Colo-
| mel Alien stated the obiece Of the meet
ing and requested those present to sub
NIT their views as briefly as possible
Theodore L. Holbrook, representing
the Washington Brick Company. was
the first speaker He said that his COM
pany was newly established and that
its factories were situated il. Virginia,
near the end of the pr==ae- bridge. He
said that almost every ecick used in
this city was made in : -sinia, there
being in that State several islher plants
besides that OF the WASHINGTON COM
pauy. that sell brick in Washington.
II was the general desire Of the persons
interested IN the development of Alex
andria county to have lie ncw bridge
situated as near the site of the present
structure as possible
George A Eass, representing the
Washington Hydraulic Press Brick
Company. whose plant is located in Al
exandria county. stated that it would
| De a great hardship TO the brick manu-
facturers to have the bridge moved fur
.her than five hundred feet beyond the
existing structure. At present the
teams hauling brick into this city CO.
make three trips daily. but If the new
bridge is constructed more than five
hundred feet from the present site it
viii be impossible 10 do this and the
cost Of building material viii thereby
be increased
Charles G. Smith, of Charles G.
Smith & Sons. tugboat operatives, en-
quired as to the height of the proposed
bridge. He said he thought that some
attention should be paid TO the devel-
opment of the shipping interests in
Washington II was the desire of the
shippers to obviate the necessity OF de-
laying their t9ws by waiting for the
opening Of draw in the bridge and
Dir. Smith suggested thac the plans be
made to allow for a height Of at least
thirty feet. The largest tug in service
on the Potomac at present would re-
quire a bridge fifty feet in height 70
permit a safe passage.
Meredith WinshIp. representing WIN
ship & Co, Of Georgetown, told the com
mission he was a heavy shipper Of coal.
He said that Washington was the nat
ural outlet for TIE coal fields of Penn
sylvania and Virginia and thai the
business of shipping coal was growing
every year He called the attention Of
the commission 10 the fact that the
bridge to be cons tructed Will be in PC
sition for many years and some atten-
ton must be paid 10 the development
OF the city's commerce in the future
Mr. Winship operates number of tugs
and he said it would require a bridge
at least fifty feet high to permit a safe
passage for them Captain Beach ask
ed If it was not possible TO lower the
smokestacks of the tugs.
Mr. Winship said 1t could De done.
but no provision had been made for It
on his tugs. Captain Burr stated that
the smokestacks Of all the tugs on the
Western rivers Were provided with
hinges and could be lowered when pass
ing under a bridge which had no draw
Mr. Winship addressed the commits
sion at some length and finally stated
that the bridge should be a monument
10 Washington commerce as we'll as a
memorial for the dead Then it was
discovered that the speaker was labor
ing under the impression that the Me-
mortal Bridge -as the project under
discussion Mr. Winship said MS re-
marks applied with even greater force
20 the project under discussion, when
ne discovered his error.
Albert II. ScherZer. representing a
Chicago bridge building concern, was
then introduced and presented plans
I0r a new lift-draw bridge. He explain
eel the plans at some length.
v A Pratt, Civil Engineer Of the
Pennsylvania railroad, submitted the
plans that have been drawn for the
construction of the railroad bridge
which VIII take the place of the Long
Bridge. He had also made drawings
of the proposed passenger bridge.
J. E. Clements. Commonwealth Al
torney for Alexandria county, stated
that the people Of his county were in
terested in the matter because any
great change in ghe present location
would Involve the expenditure of a
large sum of money n reconstructtng
the roads in the county. He suggested
that the plan of the railroad engineers,
placing the passenger bridge about
eight hundred feet beyond the railroad
be adopted and that the roads leading
from the present highway be Included
in the approach. thus relieving the
county Of the expense Of building a new
road.
another open meeting viii be held at
Il o'clock tomorrow morning, when
Colonel Allen hopes to hear from all
those who desire 70 express an opinion
as TO the construction Of the new
bridge.
Tive Troops of Cavalry Transferred.