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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1884)
THE WEST SHORE. 6 without the town limits. The majority of the settlers at present are Mormons, though the new-comers, especially miners, are chiefly Gentiles. A large number of men are employed in the shops, and the present population of the town is about 800. Coal is brought by the railroad, sev eral extensive beds lying along the route, and timber is floated down from the mountains. The mining and agricultural interests will develop together, rendering mutual support, and a large and prosperous population will ere many years occupy the valley of Snake River. THE CANTILEVER BRIDGE. The cantilever bridge is described as one of the great est triumphs of modern engineering science. The one now just completed at Niagara is 245 feet above the rushing torrent below, and it is not dissimilar in appear ance to an ordinary truss bridge, although erected on an entirely different plan. At the water's edge, on each side of the river, excavations were carried down until solid rock was reached, when massive blocks of boton or cement were firmly placed in position. Upon these beton blocks were built pillars of masonry of the most substantial character, carried up fifty feet above the surface of the water. On these rest two steel towers, rising 150 feot above the masonry, and upon these were set the steel superstructures. The design is such that after the arm from the shore to the tower is completed and anchored the river arm may then be built out, one panel or section at a time, by means of great travelling dorricks, and be Belf-sustaining as it progresses, balanced by the weight of the shore end. After one panel of twenty-five feot is built and has its bracing adjusted the travelling dorricks are moved forward and another panel erected. Thus the work progresses, section by section, until the ends of the cantilever are reached, when there still remains a gap of 125 feet to close. Into this will be swung and suspended from the cantilever arms an ordinary truss bridge, form ing the connecting link and completing the structure. Compensation for expansion and contraction is provided for by an ingenious arrangement between the ends of the cantilever and fixed span, allowing the ends to move freoly as the temperature changes, but at the same time preserving perfect rigidity against the side pressure from the wind. There will be no guys for this purpose, as in the suspension bridge, but the structure will be complete within itself. Neither will there be any of that motion noticed on a suspension bridge as a train moves over ii The total length of the bridge proper is 895 feot, divided into two cantilevers of 375 feet on the Canadian and 395 on the American sido, supported on steel towers rising from the water's edge, as above described. A fixed span of 125 feet is suBponded from and connects the river arms of the cantilevers. The clear span across the river is 500 feet, being the longest double-track truss span ever built In fact, but one bridge on the cantilever plan has been built previously; that across the River Tny, in Scotland a famous structure which takes the place of the one that fell on a very stormy night in 1880, as a train was passing over it STAGING AT NIGHT. To my youth and evon my earlier manhood stngos were an unknown quantity. To bo sure, such convey, ances were occasionally hoard of, but tho name was gen erally associated in my mind with the delicate attentions of road agents and Indians. I know moro now. Wo oil know more some time. Even the dull wit who has passed successfully through the birchen reign of tho villago pedagogue, the shower of newspapers and books of in formation and travel, and oven listened for hours to the wise saws of tho oldest inhabitant, without learning more than the hours whon he must appear at tho family table to appease his appetite, finds upon entering the busy world without his little circle a master whose lessons can neither be avoided nor forgotten, and tho groat teacher is named Experience. My usual faculty for taking hold of the hot end of tho poker has kept this instructor con stantly busy imparting to me valuable information, but not always in the most agreoablo manner. My first intro duction to staging consisted of that most undesirable of all stage experiences, a night ride in tho mountains, and the opportunity to teach mo a lesson was not neglectod by the master. Several years ago I wont to California from tho East, and docidod to take an overland trip to Fortland, stopping for a time at Yroka, where funds wore awaiting mo. Ar riving at Redding, the northern terminus of the Central Facific, at nine o'clock in tho evening, tirod and sleepy, I determined to go to bod at once, oxpocting to bo called early in the morning to take tho stage for Yroka. Stop ping up to the hotel bar I inquirod of the proprietor, who was dexterously mixing a cocktail for an awaiting cus tomer, whon the stage left, whon it arrived at Yroka and what was the faro. " In fifloon minutes ; to-morrow night at nine o'clock; soventoon dollars," lie answorod, as ho shoved tho concoction towards his thirsty customer, grabbed a glass with one hand, a pieco of ice with the other, put some water in tho glass with tho ice, and skill fully pushed it toward tho drinker. He then spread loth hands ujxm the counter, turned his eyes full upon me and smiled, as much as to say, "Well, what's yours?" I turned away, but not until I had caught his look of sur prise at my not wanting anything to drink. Until I wont to California I had always considered tho physical essen tials to be food and drink, but I soon loarnod they wore drink and food. A hnsty inventory, taken slyly in the corner, rovealod but 119, cash assets, which loft a margin of only $2 for meals on tho route, and firmly convinced me that this was my stage. The fare was quickly paid, and a big fellow in a rod shirt, with a scar on his faco and a wreath of tobacco juice encircling his mouth, took charge of my trunk and strapped it on tho stage. He was the driver, and consequently a personage of no small importance, equal, if not superior, to the hotel clerk; so when he asked me if I would ride with him or on tho inside, tho temptation was great, but I resisted, and said, with the air of one who hod owned several stages from boyhood and