Evening star., 1905-11-05
THE HIGHWAY BRIDGE
To Be Ready for Use January
First.
WORK Is PROGRESSING
ALL THE GREAT BEAMS NOW IN
POSITION.
Proposed Ceremony at the Opening to
Trafic-Description of the
Structure
WORK IS PROGRESSING

The opening of the new highway bridge
which will cross the Potomac and connect
this city with Virginia will come as New
Year gift to the people, for, If the calcula-
tions of the engineers in charge of the
work do not fail it will be about January
/, 1906. when the structure is ready for
travel. Early last spring the engineers CAL
culated that the bridge would be completed
and ready to turn over to the government
authorities about the middle of last month,
but the strike of the ironworkers employed
on the bridge put the work back six weeks
and there have been other unforeseen hap
penings that have also caused delays, but
the engineers are now confident that the
structure will be completed and ready for
use by the New Year. Since the resump-
ton of work about six weeks ago the
placing in position of the iron work has
gone ahead rapidly, and about ten days ago
the last of the upright beams of the bridge
was put in place.
This was In the span adjoining the draw
on the Washington side and this span
is now the scene of the greatest activity.
Fifty or more workmen are employed in
riveting the massive beams in place, lay
ing the steel flooring of the bridge, and do
ing other work necessary to make the
structure the perfect whole 1t will be. When
If q battle might be in progress, the roar
of the pneumatic riveters resembling the
voley firing of the small guns, and the
dropping of the heavy steel flooring plates,
as the workmen move them into position,
might readily be mistaken for the artillery
in service. 1t is busy scene as the work
men run about on the beams on the bridge
thirty feet above the water, like squirrels
in tree and it makes the onlooker, un-
accustomed to such work, dizzy to look on,
but as one of the workmen said, Every
thing is in being used to it.
Nearing Completion.
Five of the seven spans on the Washing
ton side of the draw are completed ana
travel could pass over them tomorrow. The
asphalt roadway and the sidewalks on the
brackets on each side of the roadway, out
side the steel uprights, are all completed.
Even the handgers on which the trolley
wires of the electric roads Will hang are
now in position. On the two spans nearest
the draw on the Washington s.d9 the side
walks are yet to be put in, but the lsphalt
roadway is completed on all except tue last
span. On the Virginia side of the draw
the four spans are practically completed,
only some little work on the sidewalks re
manning to be done, the last of the paving
of the roadway having been com.
pleted yesterday. While the lronwoih of
the draw is all in place, the machinery
which will operate it lem iins to be put in
position. Some of the heavier ro,tiCns or
the machinery of the draw are in place,
but the dynamoes and lighter parts are yet
to be installed. The big dynam1s were
taken out to the draw Thursday last and
We're hoisted upon the platform on which
they will rest. They VIII be placed IN po-
sition at once, but It will lie several weeks
before the machinery will al he in r3acez
and the massive draw can be swung by it.
This electrical equipment 's tc swing the
draw wide open, for the passage of vessels,
in a minute and half, Hand power to
ing h. 1r1J iC n n m
this will require five minutes to open or
close the draw, and will be used only in
the electrical equipment should be-
come disabled
The approach to the bridge from the
Virginia side has been completed, only the
grading and rounding up of the high
earthen bank remaining to be done. 1t is
stated that this approach will be macad-
amized but as yet this work has not been
started. The Virginia approach starts at
about the junction of the Columbia turn
pike with the old Washington Alexandra
pike. and runs in n graceful curve acrCss
the old Alexandria Island racetrack to the
new bridge. This approach is about a
quarter OF a mile in length. and is about
twenty feet high at its highest point.
The approach on the District side IS about
ready for teams to travel over it. The
macadamzing is competed md cutters are
in position, and but little rem aims 20 be
done. This approach is about Il haif-mile
long, and leaving the bridge IL sweeps IN
a curve to the old road across the wooden
Long bridge to the city
While the contract for the new bridge
whic his to span the harbor has been given
to the Penn Bridge Company, no work
looking to the construct on of the draw has
yet been done. but it IS underst 5od the
work preliminary to the building of the
new bridge will be started sno"-ly. but It
is though it will be spring eefore the little
bridge is completed and ready for travel.
Description of Bridge.
he ,,ybin
bridge and operate the draw Will be fur
nshed by the Washington, Alexandria and
Mount Vernon railway, and this line will.
with others, use the new bridge to come
Into the city. The bridge will be lighted by
electricity, and nearly all the lamps are in
place and ready for the stringing of the
electric wires. As has been stated the
Highway bridge, exclusive of approaches. Is
2,G66 feet long, and consists of ten spans
216 feet long each and a draw span 29O feet
long. The original plans for the bridge
called for the laying of two steel plates in
the surface of the roadway for the use of
heavy loaded wagons. brick teams and the
like, but this feature has been abandoned
and the wagons will travel where the driv-
ers wish The roadway is arranged like the
streets of a city. with a double track rail-
way running down the center, with the
driveway for teams on each side. 1t Is a
wide structure. and there is but little dan
busiest of times
The big plates which are to go above the
entrances to the bridge at each end have
arrival and Will be placed in position In a
rev days. They are handsome tablets in
ornamental brass, and under the figure of
the American eagle on a shield is the in
scripton:
Potomac Highway bridge erected by the
United States. 1903-19O5 under the direction
OF the War Department Corps of Engineers.
u. s. A"
There are indications that there will be
some ceremonial at the opening of the new
bridge. 1t has been proposed that the day
be made a gala one and the people Of
Alexandria city and county be invited to
unite with the people of Washington IN
making the event notable one The new
bridge Is OF Importance to the interests of
Washington, but the Virginia side of the
Potomac will derive the greater benefit
from Its erection.
Naval Orders.
Gunner b. E. Staples, from duty with tor
Vao1A I1nt t..