The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-24
WATER IN THE RIVER
IS STEADILY FALLING
For the Present, at Least, the
Bridges of the City Are Not
IN Danger.
MAY Be. TROUBLE LATER
Hard Freeze and Another Thaw
Would Be Ominous-After-
math OF the Flood.
MAY BE TROUBLE LATER

With the coming of cold weather and the
receding Of the water in White river and
Fall creek. all danger of further damage
to the citys bridges seems TO be past, at
least for the time being.
Up TO a late hour yesterday afternoon the
situation remained the same as it was Fri
day night. with all traffic stopped on the
Rver-avenue. Morris-street. Washington
street Michigan-street. Northwestern-av-
enue and Observation-Disclosures bridges.
About o'clock yesterday afternoon the
Morris-street and River-avenue bridges
were opened to all general traffic except
that of street cars. An examination is to
be- made of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
bridge this morning. and if conditions war
rant it. this bridge will also be opened to
general traffic. Although the street car sit
uation will be relieved greatly by the run
ming of cars across the new bridge at
Washington street, probably tomorrow
morning. it is not known how soon the
other bridges gan be repaired so as to aG-
nit of the passage of street cars over
them.
The highest point reached by the river as
registered by the gauge at the Washing
ton-street pumping station of the water
works. was some time Friday night. when
it stood eleven feet ten inches above low
water mark. 1t was still at that point at
: o'clock yesterday morning. but receded
slowly during the day until il was just
eleven feet at o'clock last evening. With
the freezing up of all sources of supply
from small tributaries that had been swol-
len by melting snow the fall of the river
was expected to become greater than that
registered yesterday. The probability of
the rivers freezing over is not regarded
imminent, because of the swiftness of
the swollen current. unless the weather
should continue for several days at very
low tempera ture If the river and Fall
creek should again freeze over as they
were before the recent thaw, the city might
have TO face the unpleasant prospect of a
repetition of last weeks experiences il
that freeze were followed by another sud-
den thaw.
The present cold snap was predicted by
the Weather Bureau yesterday morning
when II was stated that zero weather could
be expected by this morning. At a. m.
yesterday. the temperature stood at "A
above zero, but it fell steadily from
that time until ii registered IA at I d. m
III was not possible at that time to tell
whether the cold wave would be of long
duration or not. Clear weather is predict
ed with the cold.
The latest damage wrought by the high
water was the tearing out of twelve-inch
main running on the bed of the river at
Washington street that supplied large part
OF the West Side with water. This was car
rled away early yesterday morning, caus-
ing a great deal of Inconvenience to users
OF city water on the West Side as well as
a great deal of expense to the water COM
pany In the loss of the main and the neces-
slty for its replacement. Until the main
at Washington street can be replaced the
company Will pump water to the district
supplied by IL through main that crosses
the river at Morris street and extends to
Washington street by way of Harding
street.