Vol. LXX. No. 4118 
NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER 30, 1911. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 I’ER YEAR. 
BUILDING A CEMENT BRIDGE. 
A PENNSYLVANIA FARMER’S JOB. 
Durable and Economical. 
Our township is quite large, and a few 
years ago was divided into two districts. 
Three supervisors are elected by the 
popular vote of the people to serve three 
years each. They have absolute power 
to contract and make repairs, etc. They 
appoint road masters in different parts 
of t e district, who work under their 
orders, but have no right to do any¬ 
thing but plain everyday road work 
without getting the consent and plans 
from the particular supervisor under 
whom he is working. One cold day in 
early March. 1911. one of the super¬ 
visors came to me and wanted me to 
take charge of a few miles of road for 
the coming season, explaining some 
needed changes in the road he had in 
view, but could never get a road master 
with nerve enough to make them. Xow. 
when the public comes hunting up a 
little 110-pound man to get one wh > 
has nerve, it makes the little man feel 
a bit chesty. 
I started the road machine April 14. 
while the roads were still quite un¬ 
settled. but dry enough to do good work. 
On the 15th I got over all my roads 
except two unimportant ones that were 
still too wet. My work amounted to 
about $26, and if everything had turned 
out as expected that much more work 
would have kept them in good shape all 
season. A severe drought set in early 
in May, and by the latter part of the 
month it was becoming alarming, but 
the afternoon of the 29th a little thun¬ 
der shower came down from the north, 
and when it got over my road just 
right it threw out the anchor, stopped 
and rained 1 /> hour, increasing in vol¬ 
ume, until the last half hour was sim¬ 
ply a cloudburst. Before bedtime 
messages came in on the ’phone notify¬ 
ing me of washouts here, there and all 
over. The morning of the 30th I got a 
small band of sturdy farmers together 
and sallied forth. It was Memorial 
Day, and it would not do to have the 
old veterans drop through a bridge and 
meet an inglorious death after with¬ 
standing the enemy’s fire years ago. 
I found things in bad shape; wooden 
bridges were swept away, and two stone 
bridges were torn to pieces. In the 
meantime the supervisor that I got 
my authority and advice from was 
taken sick with a serious illness; could 
not be seen personally, or even inter¬ 
viewed over the telephone. The people 
would travel, roads or no roads, and 
six crooked planks were all the stock 
on hand belonging to the township that 
I could find. Some one sent in word 
to headquarters wanting relief at once. 
The matter was referred to me some¬ 
thing like this: “Make your complaint 
to Bangs, he has charge of that district. 
LAYING FOUNDATION AND SIDE WALLS. Fig. 375. 
ONE SIDE OF THE LARGER BRIDGE. Fig. 376. 
THE SMALLER BRIDGE COMPLETED. Fig. 377 
and if he has nothing to work with, it’s 
his business to get it.” All of my stock 
of material (six planks) had been used 
along with a lot of slabs, mine ties or 
anything that would cover a hole for 
the time being. Temporary wooden 
bridges had to be built where the stone 
bridges were ruined, as it would take 
some time to rebuild them. Then some 
of the wise old fellows who look over 
their glasses when trying to drive their 
pointer home began to say, “Well, 
Bangs is stuck. He’ll have to throw 
up his job. There will have to be a man 
of more experience,” etc. 
I would have been very glad to shake 
myself loose from it and go back to 
the quiet peaceable farm, but not under 
such conditions. I ordered bridge plank, 
put teams in the woods, shouldered the 
broadax myself and sallied forth. 
Every other old fellow who would 
come along the road would have a dif¬ 
ferent place to put the new bridge. I 
listened to some of it when it did not 
interfere with my work, but put them 
all where they would not interfere with 
the building up of the permanent work. 
I then sent word to my supervisors that 
I was ready to replace the stone bridges, 
and would like to have some plan as 
to size, how to construct according to 
their wishes. The supervisor who had 
charge of me was still sick, and was 
very low at this time. I got word to go 
ahead, build to suit myself, and do the 
best I could under the circumstances. 
I knew my supervisor was in favor of 
concrete bridges and if he was able to 
consult me that would be the kind of 
bridge we would build. I hired an 
extra day hand for the farm work, and 
told them to go ahead for the remainder 
of the season, as I was busy. 
Fig. 375 shows the bridge, side walls 
up, bottom laid, part of the under frame 
for arch forms to rest on with one form 
placed at the upper end. The tempor¬ 
ary bridge shows above, and the der¬ 
rick was used for hoisting the stone 
when tearing out, also for letting them 
down again on the new bridge. The 
picture shows only a part of the great 
expanse of territory the water comes 
from at this point; two small streams 
extending back among those high hills 
come together in front of the bridge, 
and counting the two side ditches along 
the road, four streams come together 
in front of the bridge, and as the bridge 
is in a hollow the water comes with a 
rush from all points. Wooden bridges 
have been swept away without number, 
uitil the creek bed at that point had 
become a pot hole. Eight years ago an 
old English stone mason was employed 
to build a bridge out of heavy lime¬ 
stone. A bridge was built 15 feet long 
at creek bed, with a span of four feet 
square for water to pass through. As 
the stone work was battered back from 
foundation up to give it strength, after 
