Evening star., 1952-07-04
Reporter Walks -Four Miles Across Chesapeake Buva the New Bridge
By George Kennedy
sinr sinff cerr..nandan.

Ssar Stuff Correspondent
ANNAPOLIS, Nd. July 4.-I
walked across the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge yesterday.
It was no great feat. Most of
the deck is completed. But there
is a section where the concrete is
only II feet wide. with steel floor
gridS on either side. And there are
mo guard rails.
To cross it is not exactly walk
ing a tight rope. But when you
step on that outside grid to let a
tractor pass and unwillingly look
down on the glistening water $50
feet below, it does something to
lyou.
Automobiles could cross the
bridge today except for the trac-
tors and cement mixers operating
in this narrow section-the sus-
pension span, which will be the
last to be completed.
The bridge is 4 miles long. It
lis to be opened on July 80. You
wonder how in the world it is 60
ing to be completed by that date.
But when you consider what has
happened since the last span was
lifted into space, you have little
doubt that it will be accomplished.
Ships Look Tiny.
The little ships 60 by on their
way to Baltimore. They aren't
little, but that's the way they look
from the high point of the suspen-
sion span. There are freighters
with multiple booms for lifting
cargo, tankers with decks almost
awash, and a big ore boat from
Venezuela.
A small craft of unusual ap-
pearance passes. The men stop
work to look at it. It is one OF the
Navy's new killer submarines, de-
signed to hunt enemy U-boats.
Along the 2.300-foot section that
hangs on the cables, men are
building forms for the concrete
slabs that will bring the roadway
to its full 28-foot width.
There is much work to be
done. The guard rails. one of the
final touches, take a long time to|
put in place. You can figure it out
as you walk along.
The men are putting precastI
concrete curbstones, which are
two feet high, into place. AS they
are about S feet long and they
must rim both sides of the Al
mile bridge, it takes about 8,O0Ol
OF them to complete the job. And
it takes as many iron castings tol
hold the two longitudinal pipesl
above them-16 miles of pipe.
Much of this work has been done. |
but much remains.
Building Confident on Opening.
The bridge builders have mol
doubt about the July 80 opening.
Their only worries are about
housekeeping items-whether ALL
the wet paint on the steel will be
covered with the succeeding blue
and aluminium coats and whether
the catwalk. which has enabled
the workers to wrap the cables.
will be removed in time. A sus-
pension bridge is a beautiful
Thing. But it doesn't blossom intol
Full flower until the scaffolding |
IS removed.
The amount of labor-saving
machinery is impressive-powerI
saws, portable air compressorsl
for pneumatic tools. mechanical
paint stirrers and spray guns. |
Loud speakers bark orders given
oy men high in the towers. There
IS electric power everywhere and
occasional telephones.
At the east end of the suspen-
sion span the bridge descends at
gentle slope across the bay. Near
the Eastern Shore. there is a can
5ilever span, which affords pas
sage for smaller ships. Here the
painters with spray guns are Civ
ing the steel trusswork a final
cost. They are covering a beau
,iful sky-blue coat with a glisten-
ng aluminium finish.
$4,000 for a Coat.
1t costs $4,000 to give the
bridge a coat of paint. It is to be
given three coats on the Job, in
addition to the original coat of
red paint put on when the steel
vas fabricated.
The painters spraying the final
aluminium finish look like figures
IN a living statuary show. Even |
the hair on the back of their
heads becomes metallic.
In this balmy open weather,
The workers have been reaping a
Chief Mllrrav's Rann4',