Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-15

upon concentric twenty and forty-foot steel
cylinders, one within the other, and both
filled with steel bracing and concrete.
These cylinders will not be sunk by cais-
sens, but will be forced into the river
bed by open dredging through the big
twenty-foot hole in the center. This
method was employed in forcing down the
foundation for the present pivot pier, and
though it was new then, It worked salts
factorily.
The present bridge is under contract for
completion June l. 1t will not be finished
by that time, however, and IT may be well
into next winter before, it is. Construc-
tion was begun in September last and has
been pushed forward as rapidly as possible,
but delays, to material and the shortage
CT men have retarded progress. At pres
ent there are about $50 men at work on the
bridge, and twenty-five or thirty more could
be used. 80, -.'r+
Waddell & Hedrick. consulting engineers
OF Kansas City. designed the old and the
new bridge. They are experimenting the
work through Mr.. M. J. Maher, engineer in
charge. The Foundation and Construction
company of New York has the contract for
the substructure and Mr.. George Adgate
is in charge. The American Bridge COM
pany holds the contract for the super
structure, or steel work. Their business
will come later and the sending of ma
terial to Omaha has not been started.
Knowing that the wooden piers and
cheap construction OF the west two-thirds
of the bridge would not last more than a
few years, the designers arranged the
present bridge so hat the new parts can
be built without interfering with trafic
in any way. At present the bridge crosses
the stream several degrees removed from
right angles. The new bridge will go
straight across, this being possible with
out entire reconstruction, because the per-
manent portion is a draw-span, which can
be swung into alignment at pleasure.
Bridge building is an occupation tina re-
quires immense capital, all the science that
can be brought to bear and the services
Of many skilled and unskilled workmen.
To the engineers and the construction SUI
perintendents II brings perplexities and
cares that cause loss OF sleep and the per-
manent wrinkling of foreheads, while to
the workmen there are evident dangers to
life and limb. Resourcefulness and a readi-
ness to meet and to subdue new conditions
are needed in bridge building, and the
knowledge that thousands OF dollars hang
in the balance do not reduce the RESPONSE
bilities.
What 1t means to make a big bridge is
apparent from an observation of the busy
outdoor workshop that nestles close up
under the embankments of the approaches
on the river shore at East Omaha. Several
acres of ground are taken up with the work
Of various kinds. Huge piles of crushed
rock and frozen sand, in and out of railway
cars, barrels of concrete, heaps of coal
and nondescript tool and engine shacks
give the place a disorderly and a busy air,
while great piles of evenly cut blocks of
sandstone from Kettle river, in Mime
sofa, stand out in straight-laced relief
against the confusion. The pile driver
pushes long sticks OF wood into the ground,
with the aid OF a hydraulic pipe; donkey
engines pant everywhere and pulleys and
blocks groan as cranes swing heavy loads
into place.
A compressed air pump is coughing at
mosphere into the caissons below the sur
face and splitting out a broken stream of
sand which the diggers are loosening be-
low. One gang OF men is thawing out frozen
sand; another is mixing concrete, while in
the snug little tar paper-covered shanties
OF the building captains, clerical forces of
young men are continually going over plans
and making and cashing time checks and
doing other kinds of IahoF with brain and