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35o BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES
spend time in considering. Eminent bridge engineers and
builders of that day were consulted, and John Fowler, inventor
of the Fowler truss bridge, agreed to undertake the throwing
of a bridge across the Cascade Gulf that would successfully
solve the serious problem that confronted the Company at
the brink of that mighty chasm.
The work on the Cascade Bridge was begun in the spring
of 1S47, and was a year and a half in building. It consisted
of a solitary arch of 250 feet span, with a rise of fiftyfeet.
The abutments were the solid rock that formed the sides of
the ravine, each leg of the great arch being supported on a
deep shelf hewn into the rock. The arch was constructed of
eight ribs of white oak, two feet square in the centre, and
two feet by four at the abutments. These were interlaced
with wood and iron braces so as to combine strength and
lightness in the airy structure. The width of the bridge was
twenty-four feet, the surface of its material being protected
by a coating of cement and gravel. This bridge became
famous as the longest single-span bridge constructed of wood
in the world. In spite of the difficulty and risk that attended
clambering down to the bottom of the Cascade Gulf, from
which point alone a satisfactory view of the bridge could
be obtained, this really remarkable structure, hanging high
in the air, like the thread of some huge spider-web, became
such an attraction that scarcely a train arrived at Susquehanna,
during the years the bridge was a part of the railroad,
from which tourists did not alight for the purpose of
visiting the ravine and the bridge that spanned its dizzy summit—Susquehanna
being the nearest stopping place. Once,
in those early days of Erie, Gen. Winfield Scott was a passenger
on a train that was stopped at Cascade Bridge to
enable the passengers to view the bridge from this chasm.
General Scott, after gazing at the airy structure from the
depths of the gulf, exclaimed :
" The man who could throw a cow-path like that over this
gulf deserves a crown ! "
The bridge cost $72,000. In 1854 there were rumors that
the Cascade Bridge was showing signs of weakness, and the
Railroad Commissioners of New York State sent an engineer
to examine it. He reported that the bridge was safe. The
Board of Railroad Commissioners inspected the bridge themselves
in 1855, and they were satisfied with its condition.
But the Company in that year decided that, owing to the
possibility of the bridge being destroyed by fire, which would
practically stop all operations on the railroad until a substitute
could be provided, it would be wise to cross the gulf by
changing the route, fillingin the ravine, and making a culvert
for the creek. 'Phis work occupied five years, being
completed during the receivership of Nathaniel Marsh, in
i860, and the wonderful Cascade Bridge was abandoned and
demolished, and is now only a memory.
A man named Lewis, of Canandaigua, was a workman on
the Cascade Bridge. One day he fell from the trestle work
to the bottom of the ravine, more than 100 feet, and alighted
in such a way that, incredible asit may seem, he escaped
with so little injury that he returned to his work the same
day. In 1S54, the Fowler bridge across the Susquehanna
River west of Susquehanna Station was ordered replaced by
a McCallum bridge, and Lewis was one of the men employed
on the work. The height of the bridge above the island on
which one of its piers rested was not more than fifteenfeet.
Lewis fell from the bridge one day and was killed.
THE STARUCCA VIADUCT.
The valley of the Starucca Creek, about two miles beyond
Cascade Gulf, was the next difficulty in the way of the railroad—a
sudden, deep, and wide depression in the hills, a
hundred feet or more below the lowest elevation the roadbed
could find. 'Phis valley was more than a cpiarter of a
mile wide, and there was no way around it. At firstit was
proposed that this broad and deep stretch should be graded
up to the level of the road-bed by constructing an embankment
across it, but the plan was abandoned on the score of
cost and the great length of time that would be required to
raise that enormous mound of earth. The crossing of the
valley by a viaduct was then decided upon. The great work
was begun about the time the Cascade Bridge was begun, but
it was dragging, and threatened to defeat the efforts of the
Company to get the road through to Binghamton by the end
of 1848. Three different contractors had failed and thrown
up the work.
James P. Kirkwood was a Scotchman, and learned civil
engineering on the Boston and Albany Railroad, an early
work from which a number of engineers and contractors came
to the Erie when it was building. He was a brother-in-law
of Julien W. Adams, who was a leading contractor and bridgebuilder
on the Erie, his great work being the above described
wooden bridge over Cascade Gulf. In the spring of 1848,
Contractor Adams was appealed to by the Company's representatives.
"Who can build that viaduct?" he was asked.
" I know of no one who can do it," he replied, "unless it
is Kirkwood."
The matter was presented to Kirkwood. He visited the
spot, investigated the facilities for getting stone and material,
and reported.
" I can build that viaduct in time," he said, " provided you
don't care how much it may cost."
He was told to go to work at it regardless of cost. He
did so. The quarries from which the stone for the work was
obtained were three miles up the Starucca Creek. Rirkwood
put down a railroad track on each side of the creek,
from the quarries to the work, and brought the stone in on
cars. The labor was all done by the clay, and every available
man in that vicinity was employed. In May, 1S48, at the
viaduct and quarries, 800 men were employed. The false
work was in thirteen tiers, and extended across the Starucca
Valley. Operations on this remarkable structure were pushed
night and day, and with such system and method that the
viaduct was ready for use long before its use was required.