Evening Star Newspaper, February 14, 1932, Page 76

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 14, 1932, ONCEIVED as a mythical link be- tween the North and South, the Arlington Memorial Bridge has emerged fram the aspirations ef almost & century, to stand in en- during granite as a symbol of the unity of the United States. Bridging the Potomac River, this monumental structure that will cost Uncle Sam some $14,750,000 ere it is completely finished, fittingly connects tne Lincoln Memorial and the mansion of Gen. Robert E. Lee—Arlington House—set pictur- esquely on the heights across from the National Capital. Fate must have shuffied the cards, too, for, appropriately enough, the grandson of that eminent Civil War general, who fought mnder the Great Emancipator snd brought peace at the-last at Appomattox, has had charge of the beddge’s construction in these latier years| Ligut. Col. U. 5. Grant, 3d, executive officer of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission, and his asgociates have builded well. . 1id set his hand to the statute that made it all possible. For generations such a project had been in the minds of men. As far back as 1850 President Andrew Jackson had sponsored the idea. Daniel Webster referred to it in this wise in an address he delivered on the Fourth of July, 1851: “Before us is the broad and beautiful river, separating two of the original 13 States, which a late President, a man of determined Union of the North and the Sowth. Tha President was Gen. Jackson.” oni PR I LINKING T’he North and T’he South Beautiful New Span, the Arlington Memorial Bridge, to Stand as a Granite Symbol of the Unity of the States—It W ill Cost, W hen Construction Is Completed, Almost Fifteen Million Dollars and Take Its Place With Great Bridges. BY WILLIAM A. MILLEN Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission permit the translation into finished granite. The highway that will connect with the Lee Boulevard to the westward on Columbia Island and the bridge that will be a link with Analostan Island, upstream, are still in the making. The hemicycle, that six-sided orna- mentation that will grace the east wall of Arlington National Cemetery and form a gracious terminus for the whole program to the westward, reposes in the paper stage, aithough the cutters are quarrying the stone out of thc mountains of Narth ©grolina and -of Maine. The, vexing question of what treatment is to take the place of the two stately columns, Lincoln Memorial, with one symbolizing the North and the other the South. femac River, has yet $0 be widened, for the most part, and in the region of the Capitol some buildings are yet to be razed far its right of way. The underpass highway that will treverse the Rock Creek and Potomac parkway approach and the bridge proper, so s to svaid a crossing with bridge traffic at grade, is still under comstruction. The seawall being built is forc- ing the Potomac River out a bit, so that the highway down %o Potomac Park may be fashioned and created around the Ericsson Memorial. 'I‘vventy.-third street has yet to be widened 80 that an arterial highway in the vicinity of the Naval Hospital may be made, connecting with Constitution avenue. There is a vast amount of landscaping to be done around the Lincoln Memorial as part of the bridge project. New material is to be planted and older trees that have had oppor- tunity for 15 years now to develop must be transplanted to appropriate places to set off the of man’s handiwork with the foliage of Nature. £ an index of its importance, Congress directed that the President of the United States should be the chairman of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission. President Cool- idge served first in this capacity, and since his election to the Chief Executiveship President Hoover has presided over the commissien’s deliberations. It is appropriate, indeed, that Mr. Hoover, an engineer, should eccupy this important post. President Harding dedicated the Lincoln Memorial, which proved a focal point for the bridge development. “Uncle Joe” Cannon had predicted that the Lincoln Memaorial would shake. itself to pieces with the ague of loneliness when the erstwhile swamp land was chesen for this magnificent tribute to fhe man born in a log cabin, but could that statesman return to view the 1932 developments in that area he would be amazed. Into the construction of the Arlington Me- morial Bridge have gone the tedious hours ef draftsmen, the studied thought of architects, of rugged stone—and, 100, the deep deliberstion of Presidents. In reality, the Arlington Memorial Bridge project comprises two bridges. There is the main bridge, stretching from the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial to the Columbia Island shore. Then there is the shorter bridge across Boundary Channel—so called because it marks the westward boundary of the District of Co- Jumbia—arching over to the Virginia shore. In the central portion of the main bridge there is a bascule draw span, the only one of its kind in this section of the country. ‘The total cost of the bridge is $7.250.000. Of this the granite and ornamentation cost $3.000,000. The cost of the bascule draw span is $950.000, and of this the ornamentation cost $300.200. The overall length of the bridge is 2163 feet, nearly half a mile. The total clear width is 90 feet. includimg two 15-foot sidewalks and one 60-foot roadway. The bridge proper com- sists of nme arches. including the bascule draw span in the middle, flanked by four masonry arches on each side. There is a clear span of 184 feet on the bascule draw span, the clear span of the arches near it being 180 feet, and those near the shores being 166 feet. The bascule draw span consists of two moving leaves that point skyward when river traffic desires to pass. Each of the giant leaves weighs 4.000 tons. of this 2.600 being for the counterweights. Tke draw span can be opened in one and a half minutes, the great electrical machinery, concealed in the central pillars, operating rapidly. There is a stand-by plant to be operated with gasoline should the city's electrical supply system fail for any reason. The total height of the bridg> above water is 45 feet and it is the same distance below the water, considering the depth of the foun- > Arlington Memarial i contains 15¢.000 cubic yards of concrete and 300,000 cubic feet of bush-hammered granite. Sevq-ll railroad trains, with 500 cars loaded with granite, were necessary to bring the stone from the various points of origin. Altogether, the structure is faced with granite hsnnnmzmz well with the Colorado yule marble of which the Lincoln Memorial is constructed. / ERMED “the greatest single memaerial project undertaken by any nation in recent times,” the Arlington Memorial Bridge pushes out