. The American railway; its construction, development, management, and appliances . it wasthen found that some repairs to the cable were required at the an-chorage, the portions of the cables exposed to the air being in ex-cellent condition. These repairs were made, and the anchoragewas substantially reinforced. At the same time it was found thatthe wooden suspended superstructure was in bad condition, andthis was entirely removed and replaced by a structure of iron, builtand adjusted in such a manner as to secure the best possible re-sults. For some time it had been noticed that the stone tow
. The American railway; its construction, development, management, and appliances . it wasthen found that some repairs to the cable were required at the an-chorage, the portions of the cables exposed to the air being in ex-cellent condition. These repairs were made, and the anchoragewas substantially reinforced. At the same time it was found thatthe wooden suspended superstructure was in bad condition, andthis was entirely removed and replaced by a structure of iron, builtand adjusted in such a manner as to secure the best possible re-sults. For some time it had been noticed that the stone towerswhich supported the great cables of the bridge showed evidencesof disintegration at the surface, and a careful engineering examina-tion in 1885 showed that these towers were in a really dangerouscondition. The reason for this was that the saddles over whichthe cables pass on the top of the towers had not the freedom ofmotion which was required for the action of the cables, caused bydifferences of temperature and by passing loads. These saddles 82 FEATS OF RAILWAY Old Stone Towers of the Niagaia Suspension Bridge. had been placed upon rollers but, at some period, cement had beenallowed to be put between these rollers, thus preventing their free motion. The result was a bend-ing strain upon the towers whichwas too great for the strengthand cohesion of the most interesting and suc-cessful feat was accomplish-ed in the substitution of irontowers for these stone tow-ers, without interruptingthe traffic across the was accomplished with-in a year or two by buildinga skeleton iron tower out-side of the stone tower, andtransferring the cables from the stone to the iron tower by a mostingenious arrangement of hydraulic jacks. The stone towers werethen removed. Thus, by the renewal of its suspended structureand the replacing of its towers, the bridge has been given a newlease of life and is in excellent condition to-day. This Niagara railwaysuspension
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