THE KANSAS CITY CABLE RAILWAY. 543 



and ascending with the rate mentioned, caused a curious modification in the 

 design of this bridge from ordinary bridges. The end posts were made to incline 

 so as to cover two panel lengths of the bridge, thus providing sufficient clearance 

 between the portal bracing and top of car, which could nbt have been secured 

 had only one panel length been covered by the end post as is usual. 



From the centre of this span westward to Union Avenue, the tracks are 

 level, beginning at this point to ascend at the rate of two feet in one hundred to 

 and by the waiting station. The waiting station is quite an ornament of its kind. 

 Stairways descend to either sidewalk of Union Avenue, and are covered and 

 protected from the weather. The roof of the main waiting room projects over the 

 platform on all sides, and is covered with slate. A passenger wishing to take a 

 train up the incline to Main street pays his fare to the agent, who gives a ticket in 

 return, which is collected on the train. He passes through the waiting-room to 

 the train. Passengers coming from the trains pass to the passage-way on either 

 side the building, through the gates to the stairways. The trusses across Union 

 Avenue are sixty-five feet in length and eight feet in depth, and three in number, 

 that support the waiting-room and tracks, which trusses are in turn supported by 

 wrought-iron columns, three on each side the Avenue. These columns are 

 inserted into heavy cast-iron shoes or bases, extending into the casting about two 

 feet. The space between the cast socket and column was filled with cement grout 

 and is now equal to rock in hardness. There are two large sheaves, twelve feet 

 in diameter, over the Avenue, supported between the girders, weighing four 

 thousand pounds each. The main bridge span at Union Avenue is supported by 

 two wrought-iron columns, one under the end shoe of each truss. The distance 

 '--om the railway tracks below the bridge to the floor is twenty-three feet, and the 

 IS ancc r- ,^ ^j^g floor of the bridge to the upper chord or top of truss, is twenty- 

 six ee . e irou .. ,„i^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ road is composed of eleven spans and 

 they have the following lengths, .^^gj^^ij^g ^t Union Avenue: 65 feet, 185 feet, 

 67 feet, 29 feet, 45 feet, 46 fee;, 47 feet, 40 c,.,. ^g feet, 47 feet, 47 feet. At 

 ii.o .rxd of the last span the cable leaves the open work of the viaduct and enters 

 the concrete subway below the street. The rails of the tracks on the viaduct at 

 one pomt are about fifty feet above the surface of the ground below. The rail- 

 way is double-track throughout. There are several steep grades on the line, but 

 none greater than the viaduct grade. There are two curves, both at street inter- 

 sections, at right angles to each other. A special and independent sewer has been 

 constructed from one end of the road to the other, between the tracks, which 

 connects with the regular city sewers at every street crossing. The carrying 

 pulley-pits are made of brick tvvelve feet by five by five feet in depth, extending 

 under both tracks in its longest dimensions. They are large and spacious. Two 

 casl-iron pulley frames are arranged at each side of the pit corresponding with each 



^^^ck. Communication is had with the pit by means of a heavy trap door between 

 the tra.-ijc5 



The caue \^. passing around the curves at Grand Avenue occasions great 

 resistance. The constructions at the curves consist of a series of ;horizontal 



