respect to rates and fares, reconstruc- | rates for advertising and to file with tion, stock and bond issues and railroad accidents (N. H., 1913, Ch. 145). A Massachusetts Act (Mass., 1914, Ch. 616) requires public service commissioners to devote all their time to such work. (See also X, Public Services.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHANDLER, W. H.-The Express Service REEDER, R. P.-The Validity of Rate

XXI. ENGINEERING

CIVIL ENGINEERING

FRANK C. WIGHT

tion has been taken. The Hell Gate
Bridge, the 1,000-ft. arch to carry the
New York Connecting Railway from
Long Island into the Bronx, has pro-
The approaches
gressed favorably.
and the main abutments are practi-
cally completed.

Bridges. A number of railway loads far in excess of that for which bridges continue to be replaced by it was designed, but no definite acstronger structures designed to carry the much heavier loadings of the modern train. This is a process which has been going on for many years, but there is reason to believe that the train loading has about reached its limit. This is due to the fact that under present conditions of manufacture and construction it is not possible to build economically any stronger roadbed than is at present in use on the best roads, although this roadbed is now near its capacity under the present maximum loadings.

Two record-breaking bridges were begun in 1914-the Metropolis Bridge across the Ohio River at Metropolis, O., which is 3,254 ft. long and has one span of 723 ft., the longest simple truss span in existence; and the Burrard Inlet Bridge connecting Vancouver and North Vancouver, B. C., which has, beside fixed spans, a swing span of 5812 ft. between centers of end bearings, which will exceed the longest present swing span by some 60 ft. The former bridge is under construction; on account of the high bids the latter construction is being held up pending redesign.

The East River bridges at New York City are being strengthened to meet the increased loading conditions of The carrying new subway lines. Queensboro Bridge, the large cantilever across Blackwell's Island, is to be rearranged in regard to traffic so as to distribute the loadings in a better manner, and in the Williamsburg suspension bridge larger pins and members are being placed under traffic. There has been talk of strengthening the old Brooklyn suspension bridge, which is now carrying

Two very large bridges have been under discussion during the year-a long-span cantilever across the Mississippi just north of New Orleans, and the world's largest bridge, one with Neither has three 2,000-ft. cantilever spans, across San Francisco Bay.

passed beyond the discussion stage.

The Quebec bridge across the St. Lawrence River, which contains the largest span in the world, 1,800 ft., has progressed favorably. Fabrication of the steel work is going on continuously and erection of the shore spans is practically completed. The main cantilever erection has not been started. Fair progress has also been made on the large steel bridge across the Mississippi at Memphis (A. Y. B., 1913, p. 575) and the Detroit-Superior high-level bridge across the Cuyahoga River valley at Cleveland. The latter is one of the largest bridges in this country, consisting of a doubledeck structure, with 12 concrete-arch spans and a 591-ft. steel-arch span across the river; its total length is 2,880 ft. A very large concrete bridge having two 300-ft. arch spans was started in 1914 at Minneapolis.

Buildings. The main novelty in building construction continues to be in record-breaking size, and, as is to be expected, New York City supplies the record breaker. This is the new Equitable Building just being completed on the block bounded by Broad

547

way, Nassau, Cedar and Pine streets, | steel 12-story building with brick and Manhattan, which though not so high as some other New York buildings has the largest floor space of any building in the world. The Equitable building has three stories below ground and 36 main stories above, with three intermediate tiers, making 41 tiers complete. The building is 542 ft. high and covers for the total height an area of 159 by 308 ft. Thus the total floor space is nearly 40 acres. The following table gives comparative weight in tons of steelwork in some recent steel frame buildings: Equitable, New York. Wanamaker, Philadelphia. Woolworth, New York. 26,000 Hudson Terminal, New York. 20,000 Continental National Bank, Chicago.... 16,000

tile walls and wire-glass windows was subjected on Jan. 28 to a ten-hour fire which completely destroyed all of the remaining buildings on the block but through which this bank building passed unscathed. On Dec. 9 fire completely destroyed more than half of the extensive plant of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., at West Orange, N. J. Seven large reinforced-concrete buildings were completely gutted and two of them seriously damaged structurally. The very inflammable contents, utter lack of any fire-protection system and use of plain glass windows and wood32,000 28,000 en trim contributed to the large damage.

In this connection, the 1912 statistics of the fire-resisting condition of buildings in Manhattan is of interest. Probably the proportion of fire-proof structures is higher here than in most cities.

At the International Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco most of the buildings are remarkable because of their wood-frame construc tion, in which the wood members are being used in practically the same manner as steel members are used in the more modern steel-frame design. These buildings are probably the finest example of wood-frame construction ever built. The Horticultural Building has the largest steel-frame dome in existence, with a span of 152 ft.

The fire in Salem, Mass., on June 25, called attention again to the ease with which most of our cities are attacked by conflagration. Practically the only building saved in the path of the fire was a reinforced-concrete Railways. The last official statiswarehouse with openings protected by tics give the aggregate mileage of wire-glass. Except for some minor railway tracks in the United States breaking down of concrete surface on July 1, 1913, as 369,580 miles, of this building remained intact in both which 125,161 miles was extra trackstructure and contents after being sub- age. Very little of this was new or jected to most intense heat for many main-line work. On April 7 the last hours. Its survival was due equally spike was driven in the main line of to the fire-proof concrete walls and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and to the protection afforded by the wire- that road, with its eastern connecglass windows. A similar example is tions, is in operation from Portland, the Amoskeag Bank Building at Man- Me., to Prince Rupert, B. C. The Cachester, N. Í. This new structural-nadian Northern Railway, which com

In

Philadelphia the City Transit Department has been organized and is engaged in the design of an extensive system of subways and elevated lines. Authorization for these lines is practically promised by the City Councils, but the exact location and method of financing have not yet been determined.

Waterways. During the year two new canals were opened to commerce, the Panama Canal to 25-ft. traffic on Aug. 16, and the Cape Cod Canal to 15-ft. traffic on July 29. The year's progress in river and canal improvement is reviewed in another department (see X, Waterways, and The Panama Canal).

prises a through line (1,023 miles) | be no immediate prospect of its adop from Montreal to Port Arthur, was tion. In Boston the new subway syscompleted by the driving of the last tems described in the last issue (p. spike on Jan. 1, 1914. The line is now 577) are progressing favorably complete from Quebec to Vancouver. The most important railway work now going on is under the direction of the Federal Government-the valuation work being conducted by the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Alaska railway surveys under the direction of the Alaska Engineering Commission. The valuation work has now been thoroughly organized and is progressing favorably although neces sarily slowly. It will be some time before any definite results are achieved. The Alaskan Engineering Commission was appointed by President Wilson in May, pursuant to the law passed March 12, empowering the President to employ "such officers, agents or agencies in his discretion as may be necessary" to build in Alaska railroads not exceeding 1,000 miles in extent and $35,000,000 in cost, following in general the routes prescribed by the Commission which reported to President Taft on Jan. 20, 1913 (A. Y. B., 1913, pp. 235, 576). The Commission, now engaged in a survey of the various routes, is headed by William C. Edes, late chief engineer of the Northwestern Pacific R. R.; Lieut. Frederick Mears, U. S. A., late chief engineer of the Panama Railroad; and Thomas Riggs, Jr., of the Alaska Boundary Survey. The Commission thus has one member of long experience as locating engineer of western mountain railways, one who has served practically his entire engineering career as engineering and administrative head of the only sizeable government railway and one who has been years in the survey of the sub-Arctic north. (See also I, American History; and VIII, Alaska.)

Subways. Construction on the new subways in New York City made the expected progress during the year. Chicago failed in its attempt to get outside capital to invest in the extensive rapid-transit system designed by its Harbor and Subway Commission (A. Y. B., 1913, p. 577), and efforts are now being directed toward the construction of a more limited subway system for the use of surface cars and elevated trains. There seems to

A notable engineering work of world-wide interest was started by American engineers in June, 1914, when Lt.-Col. W. L. Sibert, U. S. A., late of the Panama Canal, Arthur P. Davis, chief engineer of the U. S. Reclamation Service, and Prof. Daniel W. Mead of the University of Wisconsin, sailed for China to initiate an extensive flood-prevention scheme which is to be under the direction of the American Red Cross Association acting with the Chinese Government. The work is to be carried out with $20,000,000 bonds to be floated by the Chinese Government. The scheme involves permanent flood-prevention works to reclaim about 17,000 sq. miles of territory in the Yellow River district which has for centuries been overflowed with consequent loss of crops and famine. It is reported that the farmers in this district do not average more than two crops in five years where, if the floods were eliminated, the normal condition would be two large crops each year.

In the United States the year was not marked by the serious floods which made the two previous years conspicuous, but there were isolated instances of floods of sufficient severity to indicate that the cycle of heavy rainfall is still in progress. In Texas (December, 1913, and April), California (February) and, Colorado (June) there occurred floods of extreme severity with very great resultant damage.