Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-10

in railroad construction. Several roads in
the United States have used it a good deal.
The st. Paul road was the first to take 1t
up for culverts and soon found 1t to be
practicable for more extended work. The
Big Four road is taking out steel and re-
placing 1t with concrete. The c., B. and G.,
the Illinois Central and other roads are
using it more or less extensively. We have
not had the slightest trouble. We are build
ing four concrete viaducts reinforced with
steel, with fifty-foot spans resting on piers
set into the solid rock and strengthened with
piles The base Of the pier at rock sur
face is twenty-eight feet and at the
springin-lne of the arch twenty feet seven
inches. From the water to the crown of
the arch will be twenty-five feet at mean
low tide. To this should be added the
thickness of the arch at the crown, the bal
last and the ties. which make the track
thrty-one feet above the level of the water.
There will be three drawbridges with open
inss aggregating 40 feet.
THE longest viaduct is 1O5OO feet from
Long Key to Conch Key. the second is 1900
feet across knights Key channel. a third
Of 1890 feet across Missouri Key channel,
and fourth of 1850. feet across Bahia
Honda Key channel. making total Of
80. $50 feet of concrete, equivalent to SIS
miles.
I'm building the concrete work we fist
drive pine piling for foundation from four
to ten feet into the coraline rock at the bot
tom, which is usually soft enough. Where
it is not soft enough We use steel punch
with a 9.3OO-pound hammer. These keys
and the bottom of the water between them
are not always composed of the traditional
coral; In places 1t has decayed and disin-
tegrated and has slted and formed into
soft limestone that will stand a pressure
of 1.2JO pounds to the inch. Having driven
our piles, we put cofferdam over the site
of the pier pump out the water. clean the
bottom of mud. and lay a floor Of concrete
three feet thick. We allow that to set for
| four days, then we cut OF the piling at the
| level. erect wooden form for the pier,
anchor the steel framework and place the
| concrete in position in blocks Of the size Of
| one cubic yard We fill up the perform
| to the arch line, erect the arch-centering
and spandrill walls. and, finally, raise the
| concrete to the proper height. We use AL
sen cement that company being the only
one that could comply with our specifica-
| purity in grinding to insure permanence.
Crossing the Keys.
AFTER leaving the mainland at Home
| stead" continued Mr.. Meredith, I'VE had
! to pass through twenty miles of everglades
| many feet deep, Of muck and mari and
| very soupy. Our engineers would sink up
| to their arm pits in the mud. We put In
! six side-borrow dredges and dug out bitches
on either side. using the earth to make an
| embankment in the middle. We antici-
! pated that the embankment would require
| a year to harden, but after two months
| We found that we had solid and sub
| stantial track. After that twenty miles
was finished We struck tidewater, crossed
| to Key Largo, the largest of the keys,
ana put In our first concrete work, which
| turned out all right. Last winter We graded
| every key on our line that was high enough
1 to allow US to work. We kept 1900 men
| busy all winter. We have finished the
| grading on nearly every key and in a few
l months will have completed all the work
that can be done by hand It was quite a
| problem to take care OF the men on the
| scattered keys with no population, no har-
| bors, and on many OF them it was diflcult
| to land even an ordinary rowboat.
| I'VE go over forty-one keys between the
mainland and Key West. Only ten of them
have any Inhabitants, and they have only
| a few fishermen and truck farmers who
bring their produce to Key West In boats
| The following are the principal keys, in
their order, passing southwark:
| Key Largo. Missouri Key,
Plantation Key, Bahia Honda
/ Windley's Key, West Summerland.
Upper Matecumbe, Cudt0e Key,
Lower Matecumbe, Sugarloaf Key,
Long Key, Saddlebunch key,
l (,oDch Kew. Big COMMIT