The Coconino sun., 1905-04-29
THE NEW TEMPE BRIDGE.
Salt River to be Spanned by One of the
 Best Structures In the Country.


 long promised permanent bridge over the Salt river at Tempe will soon be a reality The material for the struc- ture is nearly all on the ground now, and actual work on the big structure is being carried on with the utmost dispatch possible.
 Colonel Randolph, president of the M. & P. is deserving of very great praise for the able manner in which the preliminaries have been looked af- ter, and 1t is to his credit also that the early completion of the bridge is to be placed. The Colonel says that work on the structure will be pushed with all possible speed, and nothing will be allowed to interfere with its progress.
 It is not generally realized, perhaps, what great benefit permanent structure of the kind proposed by the railroad people will be to Phoenix and the valley. It will mean that there will be no more intervals of days when this city will be absolutely with out any rail communication with the outside world, such as has been the case several times during the present winter months, owing to the high water in this vicinity.
 Colonel Randolph says that on the completion of the new bridge the fu- ture possibility of Phoenix being ma rooned in lake of water, as it were, will be reduced to a minimum, as there can be no question of its being able to withstand any flood waters that are likely to come down the Salt.
 Railroad men and engineers who have seen the plans for the bridge de- clare it will be one of the handsomest and safest structures of it's kind in the southwest and we'll able to withstand anything in the shape of storms and heavy traffic that it is likely to be subjected to.
 Special stress is put upon the fact, by railroad m9n, of there being no speed limit put upon the bridge, all trains being privileged to run across it at any speed they may see fit, up to and including sixty miles an hour. This is said to be the case with but few railroad bridges in the country and with scarcely none throughout the west, and is but another illustration of the builders confidence in the sta bility of the bridge and it's perfection in the matter of standing against any freak of the elements.
 The total length of the bridge will | be l,6O5 feet, consisting of 335 feet of trestle approach and l,27O feet of steel bridge. The steel bridge consists of two I0O-foot spans, five 150-foot spans and two 160-foot spans. The total weight of metal in the ste l spans is | approximately 200 tons. These spans are designed to stand moving load | of two consolidation engines weighing l62 tons each, connected solid by uni | formly distributed trainloads of 1, 4,2OO | pounds per lineal foot. The sub-struc- | ture consists of ten steel cylinder piers built in pairs. These cylinders are eight feet in diameter and from thirty l to forty-fye feet in height, and are connected at the top with steel dia- phram. These cylinders are sunk to a depth of between fifteen and twenty feet below the bed of the river. Inside of the cyliner, piles are driven to a depth of from fifteen to twenty five feet below the bottom of the cylinders. After the piles are driven the cylinders are then filled with a solid mass of |