Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-04-14
WON OVER OBSTACLES
GREAT FEAT OF ENGINEERING ON
ALASKAN RAILROAD.
Difficulties That at First Sight Seemed
lnsurmountabIe Overcome by the
Courage and Skill With Which
They Were Met.

The building of the Miles Glacier
River railway, may be taken as
typical example of the many and fear
full obstacles that confront the railway
builder in arctic Alaska, and is only
one of many similar feats that could
be cited. This 1,500-foot structure OF
steel, consisting of four spans carried
on massive concrete piers, had to be
erected across the river where it
makes a double turn between the great
living glaciers Miles and Childs. Both
present 300-foot clifflike faces to the
water for three miles and every spring
precipitate into the swift current an
endless fotilla of icebergs, many OF
them as big as a mansion. Here, in
deed, was a problem-the building of
bridge piers strong enough to with
stand these masses of ice being hurled
against them by twelve-mile current.
Everybody declared the feat impos-
sible, but it was carried through after
two years strenuous fighting against
fearful odds. Great concrete piers, be-
gun through the winters ice, were
driven 40 to so feet through the river
bottom to bedrock, and there anchored.
They were built of solid concrete,
heavily REINFORCED with steel. A row
of eighty-pound rails were set foot
apart all around and the whole struc-
ture bound together within the con-
crete in an amazingly massive man.
ner. Then above the piers ice-break-
ers OF the same construction were
raised.
The piers being finished, it was now
necessary to connect them with road
way of steel, and this had to be done
in the winter, since no falsework
would stand against the moving ice.
1t was a fearful and trying task.
Work was hurried forward and the
last span was almost in place when it
was seen that the falsework that car
ried it had moved a distance of 10
inches. The falsework that carried
this span consisted Of thousand or
two of piles driven deep into the bot
tom the river 40 feet below the sur
face. The ice was solid sheet seven
feet thick, and it was borne on
twelve-knot current. Into it the forest
of piles was solidly frozen. But the
spring breakup had begun on the riv-
err, and the icecap, lifted 20 feet above
it's winter bed by the flood, was NOV
ing. The falsework, carrying a mass
of unfinished steel, was Is inches out
Of line and had to be put back If COM
munication was to be established with
the other side that winter.
Any moment, for all the engineers
knew, the falsework and span would
be carried away. They knew it would
be a terrible tussle against seemingly
overwhelming odds, but they deter
mined to see it through. Steam from
every available engine was driven into
small feed pipes and every man in
camp was put to work to steam melt
or chop the seven feet of ice clear of
the piles. And it was done. The holes
were kept open throughout the day
and night and in the bitter arctic cold
hundreds of cross-pieces were unbolted
and shifted while the river rose Il
feet.
Then began the movement up
stream. At first it was but an inch
a day; then three or four inches. The
melting and chopping went on almost
increasingly. Anchorages were has.
tily built into the ice above the bridge,
and while a gang thawed and chopped
at the ice around the piles the whole
$50 feet of towering bridgework was
pulled, dragged and coaxed inch by
inch back into its place. The engineers
worked with feverish activity. 1t was
midnight, after an eighteen-hour day
of one shift, that the last bolt was driv-
en- home and the span settled down on
its concrete bed. At one o'clock the
whole 450 feet of falsework was
chaotic wreck. The river had lost its
fight by less than single hour.