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The Wooden Bridge 



Iron and concrete have become common material for bridges, 

 hut the wooden bridge still has friends. At a recent convention 

 of railroad builders in Canada, the statement was made, and was 

 not disputed, that under certain conditions a wooden bridge is 

 more serviceable than iron, and can be kept in repair more 

 cheaply. Such a bridge is supposed to be constructed of timbers 

 treated with chemicals to hinder decay. 



An iron bridge must be kept thoroughly painted or it will 

 quickly deteriorate through the attack of rust. Experiences oJ' 

 county authorities with small rural bridges show that an unpainted 

 iron structure, particularly when it is of light construction, may 

 fail sooner than one of unpainted wood. Eepairs are much harder 

 to make in metal than in wood. An ordinary carpenter can do 

 the latter, but power drills, riveting machines, and skilled labor 

 of a particular kind are required to splice a beam or set a brace 

 in an iron bridge. The statement, therefore, seems reasonable that 

 the maintenance of wooden bridges may be cheaper than that of 

 iron bridges. 



Long service can be expected of treated wood, kept well painted. 

 It cannot be stated just how many years such a bridge will 

 last, because the use of treated timber in work of that kind does 

 not go back many decades, and experiences cannot be quoted; 

 but bridges built in the old way, not treated, but occasionally 

 painted, have stood long periods — longer, perhaps, than any iron 

 bridge neglected in the same way, would last. 



When Virginia built what was known as the "Northwestern 

 Pike, ' ' from Winchester to the Ohio river at Parkersburg, ;i 

 distance of about 300 miles, every stream was spanned by a 

 wooden bridge. The work was done between 1833 and 1838. It 

 was said at that time to be "the best bridged road in America," 

 and that "a pedestrian could travel the whole distance without 

 wetting the soles of his shoes. ' ' Many turbulent mountain rivers 

 were crossed. Railroads were just coming into existence, and 

 Virginia statesmen — with a strange lack of foresight — expected 

 to make the Northwestern Pike the great commercial highway 

 between the East and the West, the successful rival of any 

 railroad that might be built. No expense was spared. A famous 

 French engineer who had built roads for Napoleon was secured 

 to superintend the location and construction of the highway across 



the Alleghany mountains. He did his work well, including the 

 numerous bridges, on stone piers, but otherwise wholly of wood 

 except nails and a few iron rods. In many places locust pins were . 

 substituted for nails and rods, so that the bridges were as nearly 

 all wood as that built over the Ehine by Caesar. 



All of the bridges on the Northwestern Pike were roofed with 

 shingles, weatherboarded, and painted. Even the small ones 

 spanning creeks a few yards across, were protected against the 

 weather with shingles and paint. Up to the Civil war the bridges 

 remained in excellent condition, but the contending armies used 

 the road from the opening of hostilities until peace was restored, 

 and bridge after bridge was burned by one side or the other until 

 few were left. By some chance one of the largest of the bridges 

 escaped the torch, though Union and Confederate detachments 

 chased one another across it manj' a time during the four years 

 of hostilities. On one occasion a Confederate cavalryman sat 

 three hours at the end of the bridge, a box of matches in one 

 hand and his bridle rein in the other, waiting for the prearranged 

 signal from a distant hill to set the bridge on fire. The officer 

 who was to give the signal was unable to reach the designated 

 hill on account of a raking fire from Yankee sharpshooters, and 

 thus the bridge escaped burning. 



The bridge spans the stream yet, after seventy-six years of 

 service. It is situated on Cheat river, five miles south of Rowles- 

 burg, W. Va. It is a quaint and venerable structure, a monument 

 to the lasting properties of wood as a bridge material. The old 

 pike which Virginia statesmen vainly hoped to make the "Nation's 

 highway between the East and the West," is onlv a common 

 country road now, and carries no commerce; neither do through 

 travelers pass that way. The old bridge seems good for many 

 3'ears yet. Napoleon's engineer planned well when he designed 

 the "four-arched bridge." It is a two-span, double track structure, 

 .Tbout .'ii/O feet long, and built largely of white pine and yellow 

 poplar. It is said to have been painted onlj' twice in seventy-six 

 years. Many steel bridges now span streams in the surrounding 

 region, and some of them, not half as old as the wooden bridge, 

 and painted oftener, are in poorer condition, while others have 

 . been replaced by new ones, while the old wooden structure serves on 

 decade after decade. 



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Credit is, or should be, based on confidence. It is impossible to 

 confide in those regarding whom one has no knowledge. Therefore 

 the intelligent extension of credit should be based on facts and 

 information sufficiently detailed to enable the lumberman to form 

 a just estimate of the concern with which he is doing business. 



This is fundamental. Apparently no business man, particularly 

 one dealing in as large items as those represented by a carload of 

 ■ lumber, would care to assume the risk involved in selling without 

 due circumspection as to credit conditions. Yet it is probably true 

 that lumbermen, as a class, are more careless in this respect than 

 any other set of merchants in the country. 



Some dealers not only sell without investigation, but even knowingly 

 assume risks of this character in order to put the business on the 

 books. Having a big stock on hand seems to scare the average 

 lumberman a great deal more than the prospect of ultimate bank- 

 ruptcy if such methods as those referred to are pursued to their 

 logical conclusion. Occasionally a dealer refers humorously to 

 taking a chance with a lame duck, but defends himself by explaining 

 that it was an item that he was long on, or that he would make a 

 good margin on it if he got his money, etc., etc. With this sort of 

 policy in force, it is no wonder that credit losses pile up to an extent 

 for which there is little justification. 



—28— 



Most lumlienncn, also. Iiesitate to ask their customers for informa- 

 tion regarding their financial .status to which they have a perfect 

 right. Instead, tliey endeavor to pick up casual information on the 

 outside, which, while good in its way, is seldom conclusive or con- 

 vincing. If this were reinforced with a statement of some kind 

 which would give the seller a chance to figure out where the consumer 

 stood, it would have much more value tlian it has under ordinary 

 conditions. 



The lumberman should remember, when he ships out a car of 

 quartered oak, for example, that he ' is in etfect lending the pur- 

 chaser the money represented by the oak. He is performing the 

 function of a banker, because as soon as the lumber is not paid for 

 he is depending on the credit of the buyer — the confidence he, the 

 seller, has in the user — for his money. .\nd that not only shows the 

 absolute neees.sity of definite information on the subject of credit 

 conditions which surround each concern, but emphasizes the truth 

 that the lumberman has a moral right to ask and require the informa- 

 tion which the bank gets as a matter of course. 



If a lumberman went to a bank to ask for credit, supiiosing he has 

 not dealt there before, he would have to give the banker some pretty 

 detailed figures liefore he got his money. The banker would have 

 ■ o know how long the concern had been in businc'^s, its capital, the 



