Evening star., 1952-04-13
Early Construction Problems Here

When the Lincoln Memorial was
begun, secure foundation await
led the building. and the engineers
thought they could save money by
attempting to throw the weight of
the approaches upon the memorial
building proper, but before the
job was finished cracks began to
tell the awful tale that a mis-
take had been made. An ad-
Iditional appropriation of more
than 100000 was made available
by Congress for putting the ap-
Iproaches right down on a rock
bottom. It's hard to cheat nature.
No doubt the same conditions
existed in building the Arlington
Memorial Bridge, where they went
down some 40 feet below the sur
face of the water to rock for
nation.
At what depth rock could be
reached for the foundation for the
memorial building was determined
by borings, and this was found to
be some distance down, as ex-
Ipected. since the nearest outcrop-
ping Of rock to this point is at
the Braddock Rock, a little to the
west Of the Munitions Building.
Analostan, or Mason's Island, still
farther away to the west, is of
rock formation, and, of course,
when the Rock Greek region is
reached it is sometimes a case of
blasting out for cellar.
Just when the wharf was built
along the old Tiber is not alto
lgether clear. There is possibility
lit even preceded the canal, and
that it did not follow B street in
a beeline. but like the average
stream was irregular in it's course,
and that between Tenth and
Twelfth streets it took a north
ward bend. reaching to about the
middle of the block as indicated
here by the appearance of the
piles.
I'VE continued along this
stream" says an old account,
until 1t crossed PENNSYLVANIA
avenue where the Center Market
house now stands, and then we
crossed the bridge. At that time
there was not a single house on
the Avenue from the Presidents
House to the Capitol. On the east
side of the road there were, I
suppose. several acres of elegant
forest trees. On the west side
there were not so many, there
being only a narrow strip. Or
perhaps all Of them were on the
public Mall.
1.-The bridge, as we'll as one can
remember. was constructed in the
following manner: There was a
causeWay, or rather two small
Iwharves, constructed of logs and
filled in with earth, on each side
OF the creek. These were built so
close to one another that large
scow could scarcely pass between
them. On these wharves. or
Icauseways. the bridge was erected.
The bridge was very low and
not wide enough for two carriages
to pass over side by side"
Further on we learn that:
When buildings commenced to
go up along and near the Ave-
nue.. the building materials, such
as stone and sand, were mostly
landed. I think. between Twelfth
and Thirteenth streets. The
boatmen would wait for high
tide and then bring their scows as
near the shore as possible, and
then fasten them to some pro-
Ijecting root of a tree and proceed
to unload. BY the time the tide
fell the carts could be backed up
to the stone and sand for the pur-
pose Of hauling it away.
"At this time there was no par
ticular outlet for draining the
Avenue Of water so as to permit it
to pass into Tiber Greek, so there
were two trenches dug for that
purpoSe-one along Eleventh
street. and the other, I think,
down along Fourteenth street,
which. in a great measure, drained
the Avenue and carried the water
into the Tiber."
In 1897 a writer for The Star,
speaking of the Tiber and the con-
ditions hereabouts. gives this in
formation:
"The Tiber proper was formed
by Reedy branch, which had it's
source in Mount Pleasant and en-
tered the head of Eighth street:
a stream west of Glenwood. cross
ing Florida avenue between First
and Second streets NV, and q
third from near Montello, on the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, en-
tering the city east of First street
NE. Before reaching N street
the three branches united and at
or near K street formed quite a
favorite place for bathers, known
as the Blue Cork
Between I and K streets a
small stream from Second street
west and between D and E streets