Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1906-04-20
A TRIP TO
CATAWISsA

To Montour American On Satur-
day paid visit to our sister town,
Catawissa. and with your permission |
will give my impressions of the new
bridge now nearly completed and of
some other matters relating to the
trip.
made the journey by trolley, at
Bloomsbury taking the Columbia and
Montour line. Every person should
make it point to ride once in his life
on the cars of the Columbia and Men
tour line; he then will have a higher
estimate of our. own line-especially
of the dignified manners of the crews
and of the easy running qualities of
the cars. The Columbia and Montour
car rode in Saturday was the limit
as far as rough riding was concerned,
but what the trip lacked in personal
comfort was made up in entertain
ment afforded by the conductor, who
seemed to consider it his duty to jolly
the passengers. No matter who got on
or off, he was on familiar terms with
them all and for him the trip was one
long frolic. Whether taking up tickets
or returning change there was pretty
sure to be little side play between
the conductor and passenger that could
not help but attract general attention
to both, especially.to the conductor.
On Saturday for the first the general
public began to walk the new bridge,
although the sidewalks are not yet i'll
place and the driveway is scarcely
more than passable, owing to the mach
inery, the piles of railing, material for
concreting, etc., that block the way
When the car stopped the passengers
made their way down to the shore
where the steam ferry boat, the famous
Mary Ann, lay under steam. Before
reaching the spot, however, the crowd
was halted by the captain. an elderly
individual in his shirt sleeves, who
climbed up over the bank and shouted
to the approaching crowd:
"Go back and try the bridge they IL
let you walk over. can't get across
this afternoon; it is too windy"
This seemed remarkable, as there
was only summer breeze playing and
there were no waves on the river that
bore the semblance of whitecaps.
"Is that the Mary ANN" one of the
crowd asked, who cherished an ambi
tion to cross the river on the famous
craft. Eyes, sir, replied the captain,
"That's the Mary Ann" and he turn
ed his eyes fondly upon the noble YES
sci. " Its too stormy today" he adj
ded apolegetically, "when 1 get her
out in mid stream, the wind blows her
all about "
Danville people will understand the
stage reached by the work on the Cata-
wissa bridge when it is explained that
the buckle plates are all riveted fast.
No concreting at all has been done as
yet. Work has scarcely more than be-
gun on the sidewalks, only Il few of
the big iron brackets being in posi-
tion.
The bridge itself can hardly be ad-
mired. To an eye accustomed to the
finely proportioned structure at Dan
vile. at least, it seems lily proportion
ed and positively ugly. The length of
the spans ON the bridge here is less
| than 200 feet, while those of the Cata-
wissa bridge are trife over 300 feet
long. To carry those long spans the
trusses are about forty feet high, one
third more than those of our bridge.
| The Catawissa bridge is not nearly so
wide as tie Danville structure and
the iron work towering overhead is
narrow and compact mass that almost
confuses the eye. Viewed from the
bridge it may not be so bad but from
either shore the complex mass of iron
work looming up into the sky becomes
the great fact; one loses sight of the
structure as bridge and the effect as
above stated is confusing.
| 1t is a question whether Catawissa
people see much about the bridge to
admire One well-known resident of
the town was asked what he thought
He merely replied: "Well, it's whole
lot better than nothing and that S what
we've had for several years past
RAMBLER.