A MIGHTY BRIDGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 276, 21 November 1936, Page 10

A MIGHTY BRIDGE

THAT OVER MOHAKA RIVER RANKS NEXT TO SYDNEY. THE EAST COAST RAILWAY. [ Per Press Association. ] HASTINGS, Nov. 20. New Zealand mightiest bridge, that over the Mohaka River on the East Coast Railway line, is nearly onethird finished and is expected to be j completed by next June. At the deepest part the bottom of the gorge is 310 feet below the level of the rail-1 way line, aryl from bank to bank the distance is 900 feet. When it is completed the viaduct will be, discounting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the biggest railway trestle in the Southern Hemisphere. The total weight of steel used is between 1700 and 1800 tons, of which 540 tons have already been erected, 21,000 of the 90,000 rivets required being used in the process. At present the girders upon which the railway line will be laid span two towers on the Napier side of the gorge. The | lower and nearest the bank is 40 feet I high, the next 200 feet and the next! tower to grow, one of the two tallest, i will be 310 feet from the river level to the rail level. About 50 men are actually engaged in bridge building, but a further 20 are' engaged in such tasks as clearing the line and overhauling the steel.