BRIDGE COLLAPSES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 218, 12 September 1916, Page 6

BRIDGE COLLAPSES.

SPAN WEIGHING 5,000 TONS. TWENTT-FIVE 'WORKMEN KILLED. CANADIAN CATASTROPHE. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Received 11.50 a.m.) QUEBEC, September 11. A new bridge being erected over the St. Lawrence River, on the site of the bridge which collapsed in 1907, wae partially wrecked to-day. The central span, weighing 5,000 tons, the largest cantilever in the world, collapsed when it was being floated into position. Ninety men were thrown off the span as it was being brought into position. Some of the bodies have been recovered. Spectators on the banks rescued a number of men in boats. The span fell 200 ft to the bottom of the river, and it is believed that it will be impossible to recover it. Arrangements had been made to open the bridge in a few weeks. The idea of the bridge was to shorten the route between Montreal and Eastern Canada. Members of the .Canadian Cabinet witnessed the catastrophe, and among the spectators who had assembled were the Australian members of Parliament who are returning after their visit to London as guests of the Empire Parliamentary Union. Steamer traffic has been completely suspended on the St. Lawrence. The number of people killed is said to be twenty. ONLY CENTRAL SPAN DAMAGED. AUSTRALIAN GUESTS HORRIFIED. (Received 2.30 p.m.) QUEBEC, September 11. Except for the loss of th<> central span, which was being hoisted into -place by means of steel chains, the bridge was not damaged. Five bodies have been recovered. In St. Laurence a Bridge ' Construction Company gives the death-roll as twentyfive. Tugs on which the Parliamentary members and officials were watching the operations rescued many. The Australian and Xew Zealand guests were horrified at the catastrophe. This is the second time that the attempt to bridge this part of the river has failed. In 1907 the bridge (which was being orßctrd to carry the Grand I Trunk Pacific—tlv CJbvernment railway —from the Pacific to the Atlantic) had not reached quite the same state of completion as the present bridge. A cantilever bridge is one in which spans are built out from a central pier, the weight on one side counterbalancing that on the other. In 1907 one of tbe shore ends was jutting out some considerable distance over the river, when, without a sign of warning, it crumpled up and fell into the river, with its swarms of rivetters and other workmen. There was great loss of life. There was naturally much discussion among engineering people, and the consensus of opinion wae 1 that in calculating the weights the engineers had made the structure too. light for the enormous weight it had to bear. Engineers across the Atlantic have been prone to laugh at the English and Scotch engineers for the solidity of their bridges—that over the Forth, for instance which is said to be consider? ably stronger than the actual weight carried demands —but the experience with this bridge over the St. Lawrence shows that there is a terrible danger of overdoing the thing in the other direction. The present bridge over the St. Law? rence was to have been of a total length of 3,228 ft, with a width of 88ft, and would carry a double track railway and a four-footh footpath on, each side. It would have been the largest cantilever bridge in the world. The" central span, which the cable says has collapsed, was 1800 ft, 90ft longer than the span of the Forth Bridge. The cost of the structure would be £2,400,000 by the time it was finished.