The Chitina leader. [volume] (Chitina, Alaska) 1910-1928, 1911-08-05

when it was driven to the bottom of
the river. Little or no penetration
was expected, or secured, on account
of the large boulders of which the
river bottom was composed. The ice
was freezing thicker all the time
until April LIST, when it had a maxi
mum thickness of nine feet.
1t had been expected that the steel
for this bridge would reach the site
in time to begin erection by the
middle of March. but owing to de-
lays in the shops and the snow block
ade on the transcontinental roads,
the steel for the first two spans did
not reach Seattle until after this
date.
On March 18th the erection of a
three bent traveller was begun. This
traveller was planned having suffi-
cient clearance to erect span three,
should we be fortunate enough to be
able to erect it on falsework.
On December 18th the weather
turned warm and there were two
weeks of heavy rain, the water flow
ing over the ice in the river to a
depth of four feet Owing to this
warm weather Childs glacier began
moving forward, contracting the
channel and bucking the ice in the
river one-half mile below the bridge.
When cold weather came again, on
December goth, the face of the gla-
cier had advanced four hundred feet
from its position the latter part of
August. The forward movement of
the glacier stopped as soon as it
became cold, but the channel had
been contracted to such an extent
by this forward movement and by
the cakes of ice from three to five
feet thick, being turned up on edge
and crowded together that the water
in the river rose gradually from
April LIST, when the extreme cold
weather was over, to May 9Th when
the jam in front of the glacier par
TALLY broke and the water in the
river was lowered five feet.
On April 1st the water in the river
began rising and lifting the ice and
falsework for spans one and two.
Men were kept on the ice below the
falsework with steam jets and chisels
welded in the ends of 1 inch pipe,
to clear the ice from the piling. A
large force of men were required in
this way night and day to prevent
the ice from freezing to the piling
and lifting the falsework as it rose.
Even with the greatest watchfulness
the falsework would rise several in
ches in places when work would be
concentrated on these points. In some
instances it would not settle to its
original position and the blocking
under the steel had to be changed.
On April 5th. the last of the steel
for span No. l reached the bridge
sit and the erection of this span
was Immediately commenced and
April 18th. The steel for
span two had been received in the
The erection of span No.
2 was begun April 18th and COM
pleted April oath. On Mya 9Th span
three reached the site. On this date
the jam in front of Childs glacier
partially broke and the water at the
bridge site was lowered five feet, the
ice in the river settled without any
downstream and rested on
the shores again. The ice was nine
feet thick and still as firm as in
with no indications of
breaking up.
In the meantime the falsework
for span three had been driven, and
the condition of the ice.
and that in 1908 with five feet Of
ice the breakup of the river did not
occur until June 9th, it was thought
to be safe to attempt the erection of
span three on falsework. The reasons
for the Importance of erecting this
span on falsework were: If it were
erected cantilever the bridge could
not possibly be opened for traffic
earlier than September 1910, and all
of the construction material and sup
plies for the remaining one hundred
miles of road to be constructed would
have to be transferred across Miles
glacier lake by small barge carry
ing two cars at time. For large
percentage of the time there would
be so many icebergs in the lake.
from Miles glacier that navigation
would be impossible. These icebergs
would be continually damaging the
ferry slip and approaches, requiring
constant renewals and frequent ces-
sations of navigation. Taking these
Interruptions into consideration, the
capacity of the ferry would not be
sufficient to supply the necessary