THE C., B. & Q. RAILROAD BRIDGE AT PLATTSMOUTH, NEB. A771 
explored the west coast to 80° 30’ north latitude and 40° east longitude. He 
could see land forty miles beyond Markham; says this is the best done yet in 
this direction. Mr. Smith closes his dispatch with the statement that the explo- 
ration of the Pole is not impossible. 
EIN GME Ey vlING: 
THE C., B. & Q. RAILROAD BRIDGE AT PLATTSMOUTH, NEB. 
BY A. L. CHILD, M. D. 
We approach this bridge from Plattsmouth on the west bank of the Missouri 
river by a side hill cut and embankment, down the river one-half mile, and then 
enter a cut through the river bluffs of another half mile ranging from eighty-five 
feet as a maximum depth, downward. 
This cut exhibits several features of interest to the geologist. 
It is entirely within the loess formation, the whole body of which, in this 
cut, is permeated with cracks of from one-fourth inch to four inches in width, 
running in various directions, which have been filled with a carbonate of lime. 
This lime hardens to a strong crusty substance on exposure to the atmosphere, 
and then, as the surface of the cut disintegrates and falls away, these seams of 
lime are left projecting beyond the surface. 
These cracks are probably the result of earthquake action in some past time. 
Again, the sides of the cut, under an almost continued change of direction, 
offer exposures to any and every point of compass; and thus, in its different 
parts, itis subject to all grades of storm action. And as these storms act with 
more or less force upon the surface, they leave different but very positive evi- 
dences of stratification and consequently of subaqueous deposits. 
As we approach the east end of the cut, we pass the debris of an iceberg 
which stranded here in the earlier ages of the loess deposition. 
We now enter upon the west end viaduct, an iron structure of one hundred 
and twenty feet in length, and some fifty feet in height. 
This short viaduct bears us to pier No. 1, on the west bank of the river. 
This pier is founded on rock thirty feet below low water mark. The excavation 
for it was made in a coffer dam through sand, blue clay andboulders. The coffer 
dam was filled with beton and rubble stone; and masonry began at two feet 
below low water and was raised sixty-two feet above. 
The bridge proper, of two spans, each of four hundred feet, commences here ; 
the eight hundred feet reaching the east bank of the river at ordinary stages of 
water. The bridge of steel and iron is elevated on its three piers sixty-two feet above 
low water, and with its network of posts, webs, ties, struts, etc., the superstruc 
