Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-15

~mUI~ MlSSOuTl river is the TtDulluiuB
OF the Omaha Bridge and Ter
- minal company's structure, now
owned by the Illinois Central Railroad
company. The bridge is the northernmost
Of the three that span the river at Omaha
and is generally known as the East Omaha
bridge, extending from that section of the
city to Council Bluffs, being entirely in the
state Of Iowa. Il is about 1920 feet long
and when finished Will have cost close to
81, 900, 600. ' fl"
The bridge will consist OF two Immense
draw-spans each $40 feet long, and nine
fixed steel spans, and will be wide enough
to accommodate two railway tracks within
the trusses. Provision will be made for
outside cantilever roadways for electric
cars, highways and pedestrians, as the
charter under which the right to build the
bridge was granted specifies that It must
be open at all times to this kind of traflc.
The roadways will not be put on at once,
as the railway business for some time TO
come will demand but one track, leaving
room on the bridge proper ror other pur-
poses.
When the present bridge was constructed
in 1893 less than one-third of it was in
tended to be permanent. That portion is
the draw-span and pivot pier on the low
side of the river, where the deep channel
then existed. The span, $50 feet long, was
then the biggest draw-span in the country,
and at present has but one peer-that in
the Hudson river at Harlem. Original plans
contemplated replacing the temporary part
of the bridge in seven years. The portion
that is to be replaced consists OF three
192-foot fixed through spans and $50 feet
of timber t~restle. II was not then intended
to have two draw-spans, a permanent $50
foot fixed span being planned for the Ne
braska side.
Constant veering of the river channel
changed these ideas, and a decision was
reached to build a draw-span, duplicating
the first one, and spanning the river by
these two immense swings. Together they
will bridge the stream from shore to
shore, and unless the main channel seeks
a route outside the present river bed the
new bridge always will make possible the
passage of water craft. The channel now
is gradually leaving the east side of the
river at this point.
The new span will be heavier and larger
than the old one and capable Of sustaining
greater weight. The weight Of the pres
ent span is 2,76S,0 900 pounds, while the
metal and other material in the new one
will tip the scales, If such a thing were
possible, at 5000, 900 pounds, and is built
to carry 5000 pounds per lineal foot to the
6,1OO pounds per lineal foot Of the span that
was built ten years ago.
On the ground on the Nebraska side o:
the bridge there will be eight spans Of steel
Orders resting on seven masonry piers and
a masonry abutment, each standing on a
base Of wooden piles driven forty feet into
the ground. There will be one similar pier
and one abutment on the Iowa side to
carry another short steel span. In the
center OF the river will be a pier OF ma
sonry, 1Sx53 feet in size, upon which the
inner ends Of the draw spans will repose.
1t will rest on a pneumatic caisson and
coferdam, eighty-four feet below the sur
face of low water. The west end of
the Nebraska span will rest on a similar
pier 16x47 feet in size, the foundation for
which has already been sunk, complete, to
a depth Of seventy-fOur feet. The pneu-
matte eaisson system was used in sinking
the foundation for the masonry for this
pier.
Largest Of all piers in the new work,
however. is the pivot pier for the new
draw-span. This. like the other pivot pier,
will be forty feet in diameter and will rest