48 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



The entire structure was completed by July 3, 1869. 



The Mississippi Bridge at ISt. Louis. — Work on the Missis- 

 sippi bridge at St. Louis is rapidly being pushed forward. 

 The shore pier on the St. Louis side has been completed to a 

 point above low-water mark, and the dredge-boats are now em- 

 ployed in sinking a caisson for the second pier, which will 

 be located about 300 or 400 feet from the shore. The bed 

 rock has been sounded. In order to hasten the completion 

 of the bridge, a large body of workmen is engaged on tiie 

 Illinois side, digging for the linal completion of the pier, and 

 within two ov three weeks the second pier in the water and the 

 fourth pier on the Illinois side will be under way. The most ditli- 

 cult pier to construct is the third, near the centre of the stream, 

 owing to the rapidity of the current, and the sloping character of 

 the rock's bed. Engineering skill will, however, overcome all 

 these obstacles, and so soon as the second pier is under way, the 

 caisson will be sunk for the central one. The levee for several 

 squares is covered with stone, brick and lumber, which are being 

 prepared for their respective positions. The estimated final cost 

 of the structure is 7,000,000 dollars, 4.000,000 dollars of which 

 have already been raised. As the work progresses, the legisla- 

 ture, city council, and the county court will undoubtedly send 

 sutHcient aid to complete the work at an early day. The rapid 

 currents, quicksands, and other dilliculties incidental to spanning 

 a great stream like the Mississippi, will necessarily prolong the 

 work, but that within three years, at the farthest, the bridge will 

 be duly inaugurated, there can be but little doubt. Captain Eads 

 is laboring with great energy; he is the chief engineer. While in 

 Europe he visited all the bridges of note, and secured translations 

 of the various reports of civil engineers on the subject of bridge- 

 building, with a view of employing in the construction of the 

 bridge the most approved ])lans, so as to secure a work that will 

 be not only a moilel of beauty, but durable as well. Associated 

 with him is Henry Fladd, — a man who ranks deservedly high 

 among practical and scientific engineers. Both are confident of 

 completing the bridge in three years at the longest, and even talk 

 of two vears as the most prol)aiile time. The work of tnnnrllinjr 

 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, will not prove as difficult a task 

 as many suppose, and it is believed that it can be accomplished 

 without disturbing even the sew^er-water or gas-mains. Should 

 this op«M-ation prove too hazardous, then an elevated railway will 

 be constructed. In either event the road will terminate in a 

 grand union depot near Fourteenth Street, forming a direct com- 

 miniication with the Pacilic and other roads. — St. Louis Times. 



The Dnsseldorf Bridge. — The great railway bridge over the 

 Rhine, near the village of Ilamm, a little above Dnsseldorf, is 

 progressing rapidly, and will probably be completed before the 

 end of November. The bridge is to consist of 4 arches, the 

 Ujjper part of which will be made of iron. The iron work of 

 eavh arch will wein;ji 14,000 centners. The bridge is united to the 

 main line on ti)e left bank by a viaduct, consisting of 15 stone 

 arches, but this viaduct does not immediately join the bridge; it 



