. Pick, shovel and pluck; further experiences "With men who do things". of the cylindrical caissons struckthe edge of the fissure, and so straight were the walls ofthis underground cafion, that we carried the caisson downwith one side through rock and the other through clay to adepth of 109 feet without finding the bottom. Then weflared the bottom of the shaft, to give the column as broad afooting as possible, and let it go at that. You couldnt do that under the trusses, though, re-marked Mr. Hotchkiss. Oh, no, answered the engineer. The fissure was sowide in one place that we could find no ro
. Pick, shovel and pluck; further experiences "With men who do things". of the cylindrical caissons struckthe edge of the fissure, and so straight were the walls ofthis underground cafion, that we carried the caisson downwith one side through rock and the other through clay to adepth of 109 feet without finding the bottom. Then weflared the bottom of the shaft, to give the column as broad afooting as possible, and let it go at that. You couldnt do that under the trusses, though, re-marked Mr. Hotchkiss. Oh, no, answered the engineer. The fissure was sowide in one place that we could find no rock at all under one ofthe middle caissons, so we built an arch across the chasm. An arch? 228 Pick, Shovel and Pluck. Yes; it does sound rather remarkable. It has never beendone before, so far as I know; but we are building a forty-five-foot arch across that chasm, seventy-five feet under-ground. And under the next wall, where the fissure is nar-rower and happens to come at the joint between two caissonswe are bridging the gap with a cantilever. NORTHTRUSS SOUTHTRU55. 5HADtD PORTION REPRESENT!^ ROCK FIG. l8. LAYOUT OF THE CAISSONS OF THE WARDs ISLAND TOWER,SHOWING, ALSO; THE FISSURE IN THE ROCK. The Greatest Steel Arch in the World, 22<^ Do you mean you are putting a steel bridge across downthere? asked Bill. Oh, no; a concrete cantilever. The concrete is built outfrom the rock Hke a shelf. Say, could we go down and see the work? I begged. The engineer laughed. Do you know, he said, I senta green hand down the other day—a negro— and he was soscared, that he fell upon his knees and began to pray. Why, what is there to be afraid of? I asked. The air-pressure on the ears, the hollow noises, the un-canny sensation of being buried alive. But we have been all through that. We are old-timers. Thats right, attested Mr. Hotchkiss; they know allabout pneumatic work. But, he added, teasingly, theirfirst experience in a caisson gave them a scare. Theythought that their time had come
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttechnology, bookyear1
