Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE GREAT VICTORIA BRIDGE. 213 original positions as soon as the weight was removed. The engineers reported the tubes to be excessively strong as regards the load they were designed to carry, and attributed this to the thorough manner in which they had been fitted and riveted The together, and to the excellent quality of the iron of which opened. * J they were built. The bridge was opened by the then Prince of Wales on August 25, 1860, and named after his royal mother. The building of the Victoria Bridge was indeed a great feat. Engineers, contractors, gangers, and workmen alike were justifiably proud of their work. Climate, financial condi- tions, ice, disease—all had offered the greatest obstacles to the successful completion of the undertaking; and on purely sentimental grounds one cannot but regret that traffic conditions necessitated the substitution of trusses for the great Stephenson tubes a few years ago, when it was felt that a single track was not able to cope with the traffic for which, passage was required. The total length of the tubes was 6,592 feet, that of the bridge 9,144 feet. The weight of the tubes totalled 9,044 tons. The rivets used numbered over 1,500,000. Into the piers and abutments were built nearly 3,000,000 cubic feet of masonry. The temporary works con- sumed 2,280,000 cubic feet of timber, the staunching of the dams 146,000 cubic yards of clay puddle. A graceful act marked the conclusion of operations. During the years 1846 and 1847 some 6,000 poor emigrants had died from cholera in temporary shanties erected near the site of the future bridge. The survivors, unable to bury the bodies separately, had ERECTING THE GREAT CENTRAL TUBE OF 330 FEET SPAN. The wooden truss carrying the tube during erection was supported by two temporary piers of crib-work.