Galveston Tribune. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 148, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 16, 1912 Page: 48 of 85
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CAUSEWAY EDITION.
GALVESTON TEIBTTNE:
SECTION SIX.
Some of Men Who Have Worked Earnstly to Bring It to Completion
t
THORNWELL FAY
President of the Southern Pacific lines
in Texas, one of the interests
Paying for Causeway.
ready to start the work, the mass of
■frooden piling were first driven to the
surface of the water, then what is
known as a follower p.ile was placed
and the original wooden piling driven
to he required depth. The steel forms
for the cofferdam were then driven
into, place, the water pumped out and
M. M. FINNEY
President of Galveston-Houston Elec-
tric Company, one of the inter-
ests paying for the Cause- ,
way.
L. C. BRADLEY
Vice President and General Manager
of Galveston-Houston Electric Com-
pany, one of the interests pay-
ing for Causeway.
v,r ■
■m--
?
JUDGE GEORGE E. MANN
County Judge, and “Father of the
Causeway.”
J. H. HILL
General Manager of G. H. & H. Rail-
way, one of the interests pay-
ing for Causeway.
F. G. PETTIBONE
Vice Presdent and General Manager
of the' G„ ,C. &.S. F. Railway,- one
of the interests paying for the
Causeway.
LINTON W. STUBBS
Supervising Engineer of Causeway
construction.
tion even without the piling that would
be almost impossible to shake.
Following up the building of the
concrete piers for the support of the
structure came the work of manufac-
turing and putting into position the
10,000 concrete piling necessary for
the 1,000 feet of protected roadway at
I! ’ ill! |:i ii
>, ' »i ' i .
; ■ vi iiiii M
PROTECTED ROADWAY WITH CONCRETE PILING AND TIE RODS
COMPLETE READY FOR FILLING, GALVESTON CAUSEWY.
•orange peel dredges removed as much
of the material as could be loosened,
the dredges being followed by hand
iwork. The digging of this clay proved
to be a hard an,d tedious job, the clay
being almost as hard to handle as
stone, nothing moving it but hard la-
either end of the arch bridge.
These concrete piling were built on
the job and it is said by engineers to
have been the greatest and largest job
by more than double of any like job
ever undertaken in the world. Each
of the concrete piling enclosures a com-
nr--
:
£ *
CAUSEWAY ARCH PIERS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE. FIRST WORK
UNDRETAKEN, GALVESTON CAUSEWAY.
bor. plete network of steel weighing over
Powder was tried to loosen it, but 350 pounds, over a yard of concrete be-
the explosion simply tolowed out a J ing to a pile on an average and the
round hole. While hard on the con- j, total weight of each completed is giv-
tractors, this condition is all the net- j en at ton and a half, the value or
ter for the causeway, for the cling- ] cost of each being close onto $15 wnen
ing grasp of the clay gives a founda- j made and $18 when driven into place.
The average length "of ■ the ' piling is
18 feet - and calculations show tfiat
were the 10,003 piling placed end fob
end there would be a walk 19 inches
wide and 10 inches thick reaching
something over 41 miles.
A steam hammer striking a 1500-
pound blow was used to force the piles
in place. Of the entire number there
are less than a half dozen which have
been injured in the driving. Running
along the tops of these piling there
is a continuous line of reinforced con-
crete called a cap, while between the
piling, which are mads, with a tongue
and groove, is poured concrete grout
making a solid wall of concrete along
both sides of the protected roadway..
The sides of concrete are bound to-
gether with one and one-half inch rods
placed every nine feet and these rods
to protect them from rust and action,
of salt water are first given a heavy
coat of tar and then carefully wrapped.
Roller-lift Bridge.
One of the most imposing sights of;
the causeway is the massive roller-lift
bridge. This big piece of steel, said
by the company building it, to be the
largest bridge of its type in the world,
towers in the air a distance of 165
feet from the high-tide mark, a struc-
ture which can be seen for miles along
the right of way of the railroads in-
land, and can also be seen from the
tops of all high buildings in Galves-
ton.
This mountain of steel weighs, ac-
cording to the contractors, 3,283,000
pounds, of which 700 tons of the same
is actual steel, the balance of the
weight being made up by over 500
yards of concrete placed as a counter-
balance. . The bridge is operated by
electric power furnished by two 50'
horsepower motors, which are sup-
plied with current from the interur-
ban.
In • event of failure of this direct
power, there is a storage battery sys-
tem which will work the machinery
for thirty-six to forty-eight hours, and
even, if this fails there is supplied a
gasoline engine to make the necessary
electric current. Still not. satisfied as
to precautions,- the builders have pow-
erful hand machinery by which, the
bridge, may be -worked. The work was
in charge of Mr. S. W. Mitchell, suj er-
intendent of the Penn Bridge . Com-
pany, with Mr?'-T. Hortenstine,: agent
of the company, one the ground. The
first piece of the big bridge was
placed in position five months ago.
Duty of Pier.
The immense weights, as noted
above, indicate the necessity, for the
extreme care and heavy construction
of the pivot pier, the one on which: the
roller-lift bridge rests. The building
of this pier alone was a contract which
in size would compare with any con-
crete contract ever undertaken in the
south. After digging to the hard clay
foundation below the water and mud
foundation of the bay, there were driv-
en in a space 78x53 feet (the size of
the pier), 532 30-foot wooden piling.
On this foundation of pile heads as a
support were placed 3,800 yards of con-
crete mixture, weighing very close to
7,6ou;000 pounds. Imbedded in this
mass o$ concrete as reinforcement
were 3,200 pounds of. steel bars, and on
top of it all wras placed the lift bridge,
weighing as stated above 3,283,090
pounds. The total of this summed up
means that the foundations of this pier
are supporting at all times a total
weight of 10,886,200 pounds, and in
addition : to this the weight of all
trains and other traffic passing over
it. An additional burden that this
great pier has to stand is that it acts
as the buttress of one end of the arch
bridge and carries the shifting strain
of the roller lift.
Some Causeway Happenings.
During -the time lapsing between
September 18, 1909 wh.er the first work
was started on the structure that is
to be presented on .May 25 for the
use of the people off Texas. complete,
many interesting thijngs have happen-
ed in connection With the work.
Prominent in this i,s the exceptional
manner in which the work has been
handled. At the time of starting the
work, Virginia PoiA where the con-
struction cimp VvaAstamlished, con-
sisted of but 'three gildings, one the
.station* of the Santa pe, presided over
by Colonel Camp, and two old dillapi-
tated shacks, remnanits of the time
when yellow fever, was a peril of the
south. Today Virginia Point is some
place a dozen or so of buildings being
there, and it has been for three years
the home of from three to four hun.
dred men. The health of the camp has
been remarkably good, due to the pre-
cautions taken by the engineers in
charge , who on assuming their work
immediately adopted the same meth-
ods that Uncle Sam did at Panama, and
that tvas cleanliness. During the en-
tire construction work there was not
a single case of sickness reported from
the camp, and the contractors were
free from accidents, but one 'accident
resulting in a death occured, that one
being by explosion of gasoline on one
of the launches.
The elass of workmen employed on
the causeway has been exceptionally
good, and while it was necessary to
use men of -various nationalities, they
were handled without friction and
uMthout trouble. Separate living and
eating apartments were, provided for
whites and blacks, and they worked in
separate gangs. The company which
inaugurated the work established a
semi-monthly pay day which rule was-
followed by the county and it is an
assured fact that- 95 per cent of the
money paid out in wages was
expended among local merchants.' The
pay roll was heavy at all times for it
has been the policy of the contracetors
to carry all the men that could be
worked t.o an advantage.
Some Historical Interests.
During the early days of the con-
struction of . the causeway some matters
of historical interest developed. At the
exact point where the mainland end of
the causeway begins, there was louated
during the war between the states an
old fortress. In moving the earth to
establish the foundations the old walls
wrere discovered in a good state of
preservation, and on digging into them
there was found what at one time was
evidently an ammunition depot for
there -was uncovered nearly a ton of
old rusted shells, bullets, and wfiat at
one time was kegs containing powder.
Among (.he ammunition was also found
a great number of rifles and pistols of
the vintage Of the early Sixties. These
were all picked up, and have been dis-
tributed far and wide as souvenirs.
There can still be seen however on the
easterly side of the north end of the
protected roadway, where the water of
the bay laps the mainland .an old wall,
built of cement 'and shell, a part of -the
fort that' was no doubt built, during
the days of war.
Again, while, the workmen were en-
gaged in making ' excavations . to set
up the monster derricks of the con-
crete pile yard there was discovered
one afternoon a dozen or so human
3keltons, and judging by the number
of old brass buttons found among
the hones, they were no doubt bodies
of dead soldiers. Old timers say., that
during the. war. there, was at .Virginia.
Point a detention /amp of soldiers
stricken with fever and it is possible
that these bodies were remains of some
forgotten soldiers.
Several months ago a party of
strangers from the north were view-
ing the: causeway, and this incident
was related to them. Among the party
of. strangers was a, newspaper man
from Des Moines, Iowa. On his return
home he wrote the story and publish ed-
it in his paper, embellishing it with
much color and conjecture, and stat-
ing that the bones were those of dead
Union soldiers. Following the issue
of the paper the local G. A. .R., camp
took the matter up, and it is under-
stood that there is , now , before cong-
ress waiting to be introduced a bill
which will provide funds to recover
these-bodies and-re-inter them in one
of the national cemeteries.
Another story that gained circula-
tion. during the construction of the
causeway was that a party of work
men had' found a half dozen barrels
jjof rare old liquor buried in the sand
and clay of the bay shore. The story
Was that the barrels showed markings
dating back to the time the struggle
for Texas independence, and such
strength did the story, gain, and there
actually. came to the contractors tele-
grams from; big wholesale liquor deal-'
ers offering fabulous sums for the first
privelege of bidding on the rare stuff.
If the discovery was made, the discov-
erers have kept their knowledge of
the-wherebouts of the liquor'to them-
selves. ■ - • 1
\ -
Causeway for Sportsmen.
A story about the Galveston cause-
way without a word or so as to what
it will add to the .angling of Texas
sportsmen would be leaving out some- -i
thing that would be regretted. Gal-
veston bay is “alive with fish” all the ,
time, and there is not a better piece of
fishing water from one end of it to i
the other than that over which the ■
causeway passes. With'a bottom that'
is covered with shell washed from the
gulf, and kept rich by washings from
the banks, redftsh and bi-g yellow
mouth trout, to say nothing of croak-
ROLLER LIFT BRIDGE WHICH SPANS 100-FOOT CHANNEL GALBVETON CAUSEWAY
SECTION OF. ARCH FORMS. SHOWIN G PART <5 F . REINFORCING RODS IN-STALLED PRIOR TO POURING CONCRETE, GALVETON CAUSEWAY.
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Galveston Tribune. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 148, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 16, 1912, newspaper, May 16, 1912; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth871897/m1/48/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting San Jacinto Museum of History.