Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-18
PR.R. TOE BRIDGE
SCHUYLKILL AGAIN
100000 Concrete Structure
Will Cross River at
Girard Point
prrsHING SHIPYARD LINE
uuoe Force Employed on New
Double Track to Govern
ment's Plant Site
FISHING sHIPYARD LINE
pennsylvania Railroad is worklr

-. pennsvlvania Railroad is working
Inv Government rush orders with all the
unuJ At its command on the S2,OOOOOO con-
Pee,,on Of a new double-track line in
,.S,v 100000 concrete bridge across
cluussSb ssSbuvllill to Girard Point, connecting
NE o0ocre site OF the big Government
the s,tIdinp plant at Essington on the Del
snlp With It's Philadelphia, Baltimore and
aWasIr,on division at Marcus Hook on
Mas,,,d md and the Girard Point freight and
.,vsr vr terminal on the other.
Tho lanes McGraw Company Of Phila-
A.lnhia. which has the contract for Sthe
0t,iro line. is working from 700 to 500 men
sn and hopes to have 1900 on the whole
,no of construction before long.
,-,dsr special agreement with the Phila-
,.,nhia and Reading Railway for the time
Sopg the Pennsylvania is operating tenn
uorarv siding from the formers tracks on to
~ new line and unloading rails and ties
"a labor will let them. Excavations in
sarne cases have been virtually completed
hore the cut was shallow, and in others
4 under way
Several steam shovels are digging out
A,r, nv the ton-bucketsful, and lines of
dump and fiat cars are taking II to the
nIaces where filing Is necessary. Another
steam shovel is expected on the work with
m two weeks and the contractors are now
irving to obtain a standard gauge locomo-
t,ve and cars Numerous plants in Phila-
delphia are shipping tons of Cinders out to
rolnts on the line to fill in the long stretches
Of swamp bottom,
lanes f. Farrell, president of the con-
tractlng company. who lives in Sharon Hill,
was in Harrisburg yesterday looking after
oertain authorization necessary to the build
inc of certain bridges and grade crossings
along the line. 1t is proposed to build the
line at grade across streets at first in
order to speed its completion, constructing the
permanent bridges later when there is more
time.
The engineering work is under the drec-
.uon Of J. p. Temple. assistant engineer,
whose office Is at Overbrook, but the en-
cheering party, under William H. Hub
bard. has established a branch office at
North Essngton so as to be on hand every
minute The railroad has until the first
of September to lay the connections to
the shipping plant, and the engineering force
"a exerting every effort to get the work into
that limit, some of the men working at
night
One of the complex problems on this
work is to get the requisite housing for
the men to be employed. The immense
Westinghouse plant Is under construction
along the new Pennsylvania line and virtu-
ally all available houses in Essington and
the surrounding territory have been en-
Cged. The McGraw Company is now pay
ing thirty cents an hour ana housing the
men on the work and has a standing order
cut for 200 more men.
SPEED A VITAL FACTOR
The situation of the big Government ship
building plant at Essington is peculiarly
favorable, considering the fact that in
order to be built in the shortest possible
time and then to reach its maximum eff
eiency it must have absolutely adequate rail
connections with the great supply and dis
tribution districts of the country The Penn
glvania Railroad has had the new line of
tack through this section under contempla-
ton for n number of years. The survey
work that is necessary in order first to lay
out the routing of the line has all been done,
the property all bought up by the real es-
tate department and everything is in read-
ness to start construction at once.
The Chester end of the line in fact has
been under construction since last fall, but
the work on the rest Of the line has been
gradually shaping up, as there is no appro-
priaton for the contract, the expense being
met from month to month as the construc-
ton progressed.
Now however. conditions have changed
suddenly and the entire line Is under way.
There is this difference, though: the con-
structlon in many cases is temporary, with
view to completing it at the earliest pos
sible moment.
The tracks will be laid as best they may
now and the curves Strengthened according
70 the best engineering lines later. Many of
the bridges over the minor streams, and
especially the large re-enforced steel and
concrete bascule bridge over the Schuyl-
kill river at Grard Point, will first be pile
structures. The latter structure will include
channel span of 400 feet, and will prob
ably be bridged by the bascule type but 1t
is not definitely settled as yet whether the
swing draw will be substituted.
ROUTE OF NEW LINE
The entire line as laid out by the Penn
syltania Railroad to serve the present and
coming Industrial development along the
Delaware has a length of roadbed of about
sixteen miles, exclusive of the numerous
sldlngs into the manufacturing plants,
Starting in at a bit of dead end track at
Marcus Hook, close to the boundary line
OF Pennsylvania and Delaware, the route
virtually parallels the Philadelphia, Balti-
more and Washington division through
south Chester, the business center of Ches-
Ter and thence to Eddystone, where 1t
crosses the Philadelphia and Reading, but
parallels the latter from there to North Es-
blhgton. Here 1t curves toward the Della
ware River running through the site of the
westinghouse plant, follows the general line
OF the river for about two miles and then
shoots across intervening farms and swamp
iand 10 the northern end of Hog Island,
which Is separated from the mainland by
What is locally known as the back chan
nell recently dredged out. After a wide
sweep to the east the line follows this back
ehannel to the army and navy reservation
Fort Miftiin, where 1t takes a north
easterly course to cross the Schuylkill about
iorty feet in the air and connect with the
large freight terminal that the road is per-
tecung at Girard Point, the location of the
huse concrete grain elevator and the docks
serving this freight depot.
Bridges will