The Washington herald., 1917-03-13
Interesting Chats
From Hotel Lobbies


Frank P. Harrison. an engineer. from
Dayton, Ohio. was a guest at the Ebitt
yesterday and told a Herald man about
improvements In his town and state
"One of the things we learned fSom
the Hood" said Mr.. Harrison. was that
the steel bridges were mostly swept
away and that the concrete bridges most
ly stood. The result is that we are now
using concrete for bridges almost with
out exception. At Dayton. where we had
several concrete bridges and o tremen-
dous pressure against ahem. they stood
without trembling. The idea IL that be-
ing all IN one piece. and held together
by steel skeleton, that they will stand
UP even II one part should be under
mined. Besides, they are so tremendous
iy heavy that they canot be overturned.
Our steel bridges were picked up and
torn to bits. as a rule We learned. too,
that gtrder steel bridges stood up better
against the flood than any other sort Of
steel construction.
AT Delaware, Ohio. a huge gfrde-
bridge owned by a railroad was swept
on OF its piers and carried downstream 4
long distance by the food. but after the
hood It was used again. II that had been
any other sort of steel bridge 1t would
have been so twisted that Il would only
have been good for scrap. In the -coun-
'g NiS1AISts NHcTt uSnl DTlQEeS are uSeI
and piers are so often swept away we
have stopped using stone masonry in
piers and are using an armor plate cas-
ing and pouring il full OF concrete This
makes the best pier we know Of. II can
not be swept to pieces as stone masonry
can when II is undermined. and even IL Il
Is toppled over ii can be set I'D again
At other places where foundations of
homes were one solid block Of concrete
the houses We're swept away but the
concrete foundations were lifted out, in
cases. and carried a long distance with
out even cracking. Concrete block foun-
dations were no more solid than stone
foundations. Of course
Il have often wondered said Law
renee Davis. a farmer from Cumberland
Mo-. who is a guest at the Raleigh, IF
The government had settled on a standard
load. / understand. of course that the
sort of road depends on the soil. but even
on identical soils many different sorts Of
roads are built in different parts Of the
country.
In Maryland We prefer limestone
macadsm road with a high arch. We
think 1t makes the best road and the
most economical one in the long run. In
pennsylvania. commissioner OF Highways
Btgelow likes to surface all his roads
with a sticky preparation Of oil and tar
lie builds foundation. then puts maca-
dam on this foundation and resuFfaCes it
every few years. He thinks Il makes the
best and cheapest road. In Ohio all the
new roads are OF brick or concrete. The
brick is laid fourteen to sixteen feet wide
with three washings Of concrete between
the bricks. and costs from S21.000 to 81 600
mile. depending the distance the
materials are hauled. They claim these
roads will last almost forever and that
IL they are properly laid there is no dan
ger of the bricks cracking. The concrete
is laid on a concrete foundation. and IL is
claimed that it will last Logger than any
thing else.
Il have found that in Maryland We
seem to have higher arch on our maca-
dam roads than anywhere else i'm the
country, and that this is one Of the chief
factors in the road holding up. We sell
dom have to repair our best macadam
roads, but in Pennsylvania the roads have
to be smeared quite frequently. and this
is rather expensive