The Calumet news., 1913-11-29
MAKING SOUTH
SHORE MODERN
Steel Bridges and viadacts Being
Installed Along Line

The undermining of the Duluth.
South shore & Atlantic has been in
progress for more than "A year. There
was erected ON November lG for the
railway company, near Shilo, Wis. by
the American Bridge company of New
York, one Of the longest steel girder
railway bridge spans ever put into
service in the northwest.
This span, l2l feet long, center to
,ented of end bearings and l22.5 feet
over all, weighing lOS tons, was part
of shipment of ninety three cars of
fabricated bridge material, which was
reached within less than three ana "A
half months after the order was placed
by the railway company with Contracts
ing Manager Walter c. Zimmerman,
Of the American Bridge company of
New York at Duluth.
The installation of steel bridges de-
signed to replace as rapidly as possible
the wood trestles and trusses of the
Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic and
Mineral Range railway, is part of
the general program for increase of
efficiency inaugurated by General Man.
ager W. W. Walker in 1912. The
bridges are Being designed by the en-
gineering department in charge of en-
ginecring and j. H. Webb, office en-
Pineer.
Erected Under Traffic.
The bridge west Of Shilo is a single
,r.,ly ytrnat,ra cnappipy pad ,.i,y.,.
the crossing of the main line of the
railway between Sault Ste Marie, and
Duluth. This structure replaces a
$50 deck Howe truss and trcstle APP
proaches of "A total length of l,3l9 feet,
all hut 955 feet of which was filed in
1912 and 1918
The new steel structure is "a deck
girder viaduct on reinforced concrete
foOtings, built on pile foundations.
The long river span is some 80 feet
high, base of rail Ia bed of river. and
q feet above high water
The approaches consist of thirty
foot tower spans and siXty-tour foot
intermediate girdcr spans.
The erection of the river span un-
der traffic was of marked difficulty
owing to the necessity for cutting the
members of the Howe truss and its
wood bridge seats in order To place
the steel bents and braces. This work
was accomplished without the slight
est mishap by the erecting department
Of the American Bridge company
How Work Was Done.
The entire river span was assem-
bed and holted together on two stan
dard steel fiat ears and moved out 10
position on the old bridge by der
tick car at 1:3O a. m. With the derrick
car on one end, and a gallows frame
and falls handled by "A hoisting en-
gine on the other end, the span was
h0isted clear of the ears and the lat
ter were then pulled out onto the old
wooden trestlc at the gallows end. The
deck of the old wooden span was then
removed and dropped piece hy piece
into the river where it was caught 10y
q boom and thence piled on the banks.
The lOS-tOn girder span was then low
cred into position inside of the Howe
russ, and final connections made al
30 p. m The entire structure will be
completed about Dee. L.
The long girtler of the river span
# this bridge is used i'm preference
10 IA truss span ON account of the wide
difference i'm cost of erection of the two
types of bridge under the conditions
governing this particular case.
Pile foundations and heavy rein
forcement Of concrete footings were
nccessitated ON account Of the treach
crOus red clay bottom