The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-07-22
in AFRICAN WILDS|
How American Bridges Are spann-
ing It's Gorges and
Streams. q.
Story Of American Enterprise Along
the Line Of The scape to
Cairo" Road.
Chicago journal. !,

DacK from A1T4cays after experiences Wnlcn
merit description as adventurous and in
teresting. Ugandaeis q name associated
in the memory With the feats Of Living
stone. Stanley, and Du Chaillu, with
gorillas, lions, hippopotami, the jugle, can
nibals and poisoned arrows. It-was only
a afeW years ago that 1t stretched dread,
impenetrable; it was yesterday that the
mystery of it's lakes was solved, its tabled
dwarfs and strange beasts proven reali-1
ties. It is a land, therefore, Of adventure
But 1t was an unheardof feat, one be-
side which the wonder stories OF Tippoo
lib and Ehnin Pasha are commonplace
narratives. a deed of CHARACTERISTIC mod
aern romance-that which a. b. Lueders
and the men under his command per-,
formed in Uganda. They built twenty
seven steel bridges for a railway running
between Mombasa and Victoria Nyanza.
For the dream of line from the cape
to Cairo is--it is hard to believe it-not a
dream at all any more, but q sobsr enter
| prise rapidly being contaminated. And a
vital part of that vast continental system
| is the Uganda railway, to-day finished and
| in operation across 600 miles of Central
Africa, with one terminus on. the Gulf OF
| Zanzibar and the other at the headwaters
Of the Nile.
It was a British dream, this gigantic
African enterprise; but It took Americans
to make It a reality. The Uganda railway
| had rugged country teYcross, and tofob-
tain practical grades undergraduates were
4 required. In two years English contrac-
tors succeeded IN putting up eight of
| these, and the outlook was dismal. When
| 1t came time to let more contracts, the
/ American Bridge company Offered to erect
| the remaining twenty seven bridges at a
| cost OF $50 a ton in place In Uganda. AS
the lowest English contractors had named
q much higher figure for placing the
bridges on board ship, the howls OF pa
! triots In parliament were not needed. and
4 the contract was given the American firm.
/, But the Yankee invaders did not pause
] long to contemplate their strange sur
| roundings. Within three days after ar
1 rival the thirty-ton traveller had been
| put together, steam was up, and the big
4 machine was ready to swing out over the
| first ravine, AGO miles from the coast, on
the ragged sides of the Mau escarpment.
a range 5000 feet high: The yiaduct
across this was assembled in less than q
week, and the Traveller moved on to the
scene Of new endeavors.
4 The workmen were East. Indian coolies
| and native coast Africans. The latter,
1 inconsistencies made worthless at the end
4 OF a few weeks. The former, with caste
1 notions which were SO many insane delu-
sions to the matter of fact Americans, re-
i quired endless patience. Five Indians OF
Africans were computed worth one
American. . a
IL line bridges were Quit III fnllauelpfiad
u at the Pencpyd, Iron works They were
i nut aboard three Tramp steam lin tle
winter OF 1901 1s0ss111 100000 pounds Q,
Esteel, in assthousand separate pieces, witt
half a million feet Of southern pine and
years provisions. = All pieces had beer
numbered and letteredr and painted-s
color of its own for each yiaduct. Their
Mr.. Lueder, anseIgineer Of Wiikesbarre
, with H. p. MURRAY, an assistant, and N
/ ,i,,fo of nSfr II
; ton, OF Seiin'ss Grove; a. foreman, al clera
and, seventeen bsaaesssnen. struck out TO
Africa. s.IeAs ~ ~
3 Mr. Lueder tells the story Ia the World
Work for July. A temporary line extende
. over the most OF the.sway Not that
! had done much in the way OF spreadin
ltne blessings OF civilization. The yea
before twantyztsve ,1satisess had ear
}raed of The works BY fons' The lords 9
> the forest evineed a strong dislike OF tn
: trespass on their land. and OCCASIONAL
a rhinoceros would dispute the way wit
q Baldwin locomotive. Zebra, fartbees
Iostriches, antelope and elephants playe
about the camps.
life with q lion. His clerk shot a fin
1snecimen from the construction train. Th
a men spent the Fourth OF July shootln
8, hinpopotamf in torrid lakes. The native
= skulked In the forest, terrified by tn
n shrek of the! engine whistles, ana q
d greater degree by the sight OF bridge
ISL springing as If by magic across the r. rock
y ravines.
q when these problems Of labor 50 "a
e end troublesome had been conQuere
q work went swiftly on. A bridge 8s9 re-
le 1nng. 75 feet high, with a double Sian
is mas hing from almost inaccessible I'LL
o. sides in sixty mine and half workir
"a | hours. The English contractors who we
putting In the concrete foundations cou
" not do their work fast enough-they NJ
as not raced with American skill and spet
before-and the game was delayed. II
q lipotterfnE English officials down the Iii
- sent up materials and trains to move u
& camps, a trihing matter OF a week or tt
be DAYS behind time. Parts OF bridges g
be lost in transit, ally--traffic arrang
q ments between Philadelphia and Centr
20 Africa being as yet less perfect than cou
AZ be desired.
q. II Missing parts were Hammered out;
r main strength in an innprovised forge S
ly no II, camp. The Americans worked t
Ct hours a day and took no health precautio
~. beyond boiling their water. Except I
nj slight occasional indispositions, not nj
er was sick The line crept on over gorge
he water courses, tunabled rocks Of stran
nd sociological formation, steadily drawi
ne near Victoria Nyanza, where only fife
wears before Stanley had sought for En-
:, Pasha in the tangled recesses OF fabl
M | Jungle On last Christmas day the ls
- steel plate was fitted into place, and
last rivet of more than half a million "
driven home and backed up. Twer
Is seven bridges and 1000 tons OF Penns
yanfa steel had been set up In the he;
Of Africa by an American boy OF "a, a
over them the rails stretched from
sea to. the long hidden sources Of
Nile.
Ii, TOMMY Upton, BEWAR.
ar Il -. II g Es@ Z
o.