The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-21

from thirty to forty loaded cars up the
 grade with one helper, thought the or
 dinary train is somewhat lighter.
 This ten-mile grade with maximum
 of 1.22 per cent is a factor which must
 always be reckoned with in any con-
 sideration of the New Ravens through
 route via the Poughkeepsie bridge.
 Against the lighter traffic west-bound
 the grade is heavier, reaching a max
 imum of 1.3S per cent, or seventy-tWo
 feet to the mile. The foot of the grade
 Is near Towners, five miles east of the
 summit.
 In the vicinity of Towners a great
 deal of work has been done. The most
 important of this Is the filling in of a
 long wooden trestle for about fifteen
 hundred feet on each side of an over
 head bridge over the main track and
 siding of the Harlem division of the
 New York Central and the rebuilding
 of this bridge The filling of this tres
 tie requires about one hundred and
 twenty-five thousand yards, the mate
 rial being all taken out of cut east
 of Towners. The new bridge Is dou-
 ble-track through truss steel bridge,
 one eighty-one feet long on a skew of
 twenty-six degrees. The New Haven
 tracks have been raised four feet to
 give head room of twenty-one feet
 over the Harlem tracks. The old
 wooden trusses have been in service
 over twenty-five years, and the timber
 when taken out was in as good condi-
 tion as when built. The new masonry
 is built entirely in concrete resting on piles. About four thousand yards of concrete were required.
 Just before reaching this overhead bridge there were formerly two
 bridges, near together, each over a highway. Here a new bridge with a skew of sixty-five degrees and a thir- ty feet six inch girder, replaces these two bridges, under which, by slight shifting and joining of the highways, two roads run. East of the overhead crossing is twenty-foot concrete arch. This has been built to take Q stream flowing under the Towners trestle, which is being fitted in The land here is swampy, and the stream ordinarily has little or no flow, but at times is large enough so that this size arch is necessary. The four wings of the arch are each tWenty-four feet four inches long, It is built on piles, unlike the highway bridge, where piles were not necessary. This arch is all concrete except the ring, which is of cut stone. East of Towners there is a down grade of 112 per cent, with the bottom of the hill near Crotons, which is four hundred and thirty-eight feet above sea level, Near Dykeman the east-bound grade has been cut down from about sixty to thirty-six feet per mile.
 At Brewsters there is another heavy piece of bridge reconstruction. The bridge over the Croton river, as it existed, was built for dou- ble track, but allowed for only eleven foot centers. As the new tracks will be thirteen-foot centers, this necessi- ! tated practically rebuilding the entire The new masonry has been built in concrete, fifty-hye hundred cu- bic yards of which were used, The iron work consists of two deck spans each one hunded and thirty-four feet long. As it is at the bottom of a sag d25 per cent. on the west and 0,76 per cent. on the east), the bridge is being raised ten feet above its present level, which will make the grade better and at the same time prevent the extreme shock with which a heavy train com ing down the grade now hits the bridge. The base of rail on the new bridge will be eixty-fiye feet above the bed of the stream. The total distance parapets is two hundred and sixty-eight feet.
 In Danbury good deal of new work has been done, A new masonry bridge was built over West street To replace 8 wooden trestle at one point where 1t was necessary to leave, in addition to a street opening, another opening in order to give access to one of the hat shops, and at the same time leave head room of thirteen feet, five masonry piers were built support Ing the tracks on a curve. A new con- crete bridge was built east of the hat factory opening, where the channel of ] stream has been changed, Here a new double-track trestle Is to be built eplacing the present single-track tres tie. On the south side of the right of way a long piece of retaining wall was built right up to the property line to hold up the new track All bridges in Danbury have been made wide enough | 50 that if grade crossings are abol- shed the bridges can be easily raised. l Where they are on curves, copings nave been inclined for the super-eleva- ion of the, outside track, The work rom Hopewell to Danbury was divi- led into five sections, From Hopewell l our miles east the work was done by l he roads maintenance of way forces. From this point west to Stormville c. | W. Blakeslee & Son, of New Haven, lad the contract. From Stormville to | Reynoldsville Summit the contractor l vas J. W. Daly, of New Rochelle. From Reynoldsville to Brewster the 8lakeslee firm was the contractor. and | rom Brewster to Danbury J. W. Daly | & Co. The work from StoTmville east | Q Towners was begun in December, | BOA, and from Towners to Danbury in l April and May, 19O5, All of the double l rack between Hopewell and Danbury l s now in operation, with the exception l # about six miles from Towners to | Brewster, and the last two miles into Oanbury, Throughout the whole ex- ent of the work numerous bridges ,ver streams were replaced with arch