The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-11-24
BRIDGING CHASMS
IN WILD PLACES
WONDERFUL STEEL CONSTITUTE
TION BY FRENCH ENGINEERS IN
CHINA'S MOUNTAINS.

Some remarkable feats of bridge
building have been performed in the
last few months 10y French engineers
who are in charge of the construction
of the railroad which is to connect the
city of Yunnan, capiea1 of the Chinese
province of that name, with Lao-Kai,
on the border of the French province
of Tonkin Nine steel viaducts hav-
ing an aggregate length of about 1860
feet have been constructed some of
them under circumstances of eXtraor-
binary difficulty.
The one which ca1led for the great
est exercise of ingenuity has been
thrown across the Pei-Ho; not the
great Chinese river of that name bu
minor stream tributary to the Song Koi
or Red River. At this point the railway
line emerges by tunnels driven through
towering peaks of sold rock on both
sides of q valley the walls of which
are almost precipitous for several hun
bred feet.
From one tunnel mouth to the other
is a distance of $50 feet Owing to
the steepness of the rock on both sides
and the torrential character of the
stream all ordinary methods of bridg-
ing was inapplicable.
The problem was solved by planning
two Orders of triangular shape-arba-
Tests, or crossbows, the French engi-
neers call them-to be tsepped in the
rock far below the roadway and meet
ing in the middle in the form of
huge letter A, the horizontal girders
being then run from the tunnels to
their apex.
First of all men were lowered to
construct the anchorages by quarrying
out the rocks. Then the steel beams
and braces were brought up from Hanoi
the capital of Tonquin, by rail to the
further completed point of the road.
Thence they were transported on
skids a distance of eighteen miles by
coolies. Then the long beams were
lowered vertically to the anchorages,
and the arbalests were constructed in
that position, largely by riveters slung
in boatswains' chairs or mounted on
dizzy scaffosding until the two great
Orders were complete.
During construction the Orders were
held vertical by gearing of wire
cables vered over windlasses anchored
to the rock inside the tunnel When
both Orders were completed they were
slowly lowered simultaneously from
each size until they met.
1t was an anxious time for the en-
gineers until it was found that all the
calculations had been correct and the
arbalests met true-plumb over the
! center of the chasm.. Then they were
| riveted together and braced and the
longitudinal Orders were run out and
fastened to them with fishplates
| The building of the arbalests was
begun on May % of this year, says
/ the New York Sun They were finish
ed by the end of June, but they were
not lowered into place until July %
! because the gigantic windlasses and
tackle were not ready. The roadbed
of the bridge is 26O feet above the
! stream.
The railroad when completed will be
800 miles long. 1t will connect at
| Lao-Kai with the French Tonkinese
Railroad. which runs to Hanoi and
Haiphong, the principal port of Ton
quin.
! This viii make continuous line of
about SIS miles from the capital of
| Yunnan to the sea. At the beginning
| of this year only nineteen miles of the
Yunnan ROAD we're complete, running
| from the frontier to Hokow, but 273
were under construction. BY January
l, 1909, trains will be running to Meng-
toe about half the length of the road.
1t will take more than another year to
reach Yunnan, as the region is eX-
tremely wild and mountainous the ter
minus itself being more than 64OO feet
above sea level
The region traversed has great min
eral wealth.
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