GREAT ENGINEERING FEAT.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 15, Issue 29, 12 April 1904, Page 7

GREAT ENGINEERING FEAT.

—* — ON THE BDEMAH RAILWAY —*

What is considered one of the finest engineering feats ever accomplished is the spanning of the Gokteik Gorge in Burmah. The contract was given by the Burmah Railway Company to an American company of bridge builders, and within 10 months from the time the first girders were put in place two railway locomotives met in the centre of the structure.

The towers supporting the centra of the railway track are about 350 ft in height, and in some places the sides of the gorge are so steep that n plumb line may be dropped 150 ft. without grazing the rock. Five thousand tons of steel were riveted and bolted into place before the work was completed. In constructing the towers temporary bridge about 100 ft. high was built in the deepest part of the gorge. This was used for a tram road, on which truckloads of material were carried, and elevated to the top of the viaduct.

The viaduct carried a gigantic arm which did the work of 1,000 men. It contained a machine shop, with tools and forces, .an office for_the .engineer in charge, a telephone exchange, where the men on it could talk to those on either end of the gorge, and a station where signals could be made to the valley below. A comparison with what has already been done in bridge-building gives an ' idea of the undertaking. The Pecos viaduct in Texas is 2,180 ft. long* and 321 ft. high and contains 1,820 tons. The ; Loa Bridge in the Andes Mountains South America, is 330 ft. high but only 800 ft. long and weighs 1,115 tons. The Gokteik is 2,260 ft. long. It is heavier than all its rivals and longer and higher than all. but one.