By Ralph G. Wolff
Special to NKyTribune
It’s finished! The bridge work is finally completed!
It’s June 1867, and although the bridge from Covington to Cincinnati had been open since New Year’s Day, work has continued under the direction of Washington Roebling. The Grand Opening on Tuesday, January 1st was a hasty arrangement precipitated by the freezing of the river. With ferryboats unable to operate, the bridge company made the decision to open the structure to all traffic, despite the large amount of work yet to be done.
The bridge had been opened to pedestrians on the weekend of December 1-2, 1866. Reports note that 166,000 crossings were made that Saturday and Sunday. The pedestrian toll was three cents each. The sidewalks were not yet constructed, so these pedestrians were using one lane of the roadway. The other lane was apparently still under construction, and it’s likely that the people were walking on the bottom layer of the flooring. This first of three layers of timber was 3½ inches thick.
Roebling’s Covington and Cincinnati Bridge. From a stereoscope in the collection of Paul A. Tenkotte.
The assembling of the roadway floor, or deck, was very labor-intensive. The first 3½-inch-thick layer of flooring was made of 20-foot-long planks placed lengthwise with the bridge. These planks were attached to the iron floor beams by ½-inch bolts through oblong washers that fastened to the beam flanges. Over 16,000 of these connections were required, and numerous washers, nuts, and wrenches fell into the river.
The second layer of flooring was also placed lengthwise, but was first kiln-dried and then soaked 6 to 8 hours in a tank of hot tar. In addition, the planks were laid in a bed of hot tar and rosin, and any spaces between the planks were also filled with this mixture. This layer was fastened with 3-inch-long wood screws (over 17,600) countersunk one-inch, and the holes filled with a putty made of cement and tar.
The cross-section of each half of the roadway was divided into segments that were configured differently as far as the way the timber was placed. Flat 14-inch-wide iron tracks were placed for the wheels of wagons, carriages, and omnibuses. The configuration under these tracks was different from the horse path between them, and different yet, from the space between the iron tracks and the center girder of the bridge. Some white pine was used, but the roadway surface was all oak. To keep the water out, the hot tar and rosin mixture was “copiously applied” to every layer.
The Bridge Company had noted that the crossing of vehicles during the temporary arrangement would “interfere with the workmen very materially, if it does not put a stop entirely to their operation.” However, in mid-January, the company decided to make the opening permanent. The much-needed cash flow from tolls was definitely a factor in this decision.
John Roebling was back East promoting his proposal for the East River (Brooklyn) Bridge, and writing his final report on the Covington-Cincinnati Bridge. His report would outline the progress made and the difficulties encountered since he had offered his first proposal for the bridge in 1846.
Work began in September 1856 with excavation for the tower foundations. Roebling reports that the timber mats supporting the towers were made of whatever timber was available, “soft and hard, mixed, as white pine, oak, maple, hickory, button-wood, elm, beech.”
The massive masonry towers were begun in late 1856. They are mostly faced with Buena Vista sandstone, except for the lower 25 feet and the decorative bands. These are a durable limestone. The Covington tower stood at 75 feet and the Cincinnati tower at 45 feet when construction halted due to a funding shortfall after the financial Panic of 1857.
Washington Roebling. From: D.B. Steinman, The Builders of the Bridge, opposite p. 292.
When work resumed in 1863, construction of the four anchorages was undertaken, in addition to the towers. The tower piers reached their full height of 210 feet in September 1865. Washington Roebling had arrived in Covington in March, just months after his release from distinguished military service and his marriage to Emily.
Spinning of the main cables began that November and continued until late June 1866. This was carried out using John Roebling’s system which is basically the same procedure used today. These cables are 12⅓ inches in diameter, and each contains 5,180 parallel wires. The cables are attached via eye-bar chains to cast-iron anchor plates buried beneath the anchorages. These main cables pass over iron saddles on top of the towers. Several of the diagonal stays also pass over these saddles.
Wire rope suspenders were hung from the main cables to support wrought iron floor beams every five feet. This work was done in the fall of 1866. In his report, Roebling notes that the railings, beams, and girders were all upgraded to be of iron. His original plans called for them to be of wood.
John Roebling came to Covington to present his final report to the Bridge Company’s Board of Directors in March 1867. The publication date of the report is April 1, 1867. It included a very brief estimate by Washington Roebling of the cost and timeframe for completing the project. He pointed out that his estimate did not include improvements around the bridge approaches.
Washington stated that the railings would soon be done, and anticipated that the sidewalk flooring would be finished in mid-May. He also expected the brick turrets covering the saddles to be completed in the middle of May. Apparently this included the placement of the finials (the iron balls and Greek crosses) atop the turrets. He planned for the painting of the cables and the iron work to be done by June 1st. Then, in a letter dated April 21st, Washington wrote that the work “was dragging along slowly,” and that he planned to leave Covington in early June, whether the bridge was done or not.
Roebling’s Covington and Cincinnati Bridge, circa 1914. From the collection of Paul A. Tenkotte.
John Roebling was named Chief Engineer for the Brooklyn Bridge project on May 23rd with full authority to design the structure as he saw fit. In anticipation of this appointment, John had arranged for Washington and Emily to spend several months in Europe. This trip would be a combination of vacation and construction research. Vacation—after Washington’s four years of military service and over two years of finishing the bridge—and research, primarily to learn everything he could about using the pneumatic caissons needed to build the East River Bridge.
In his book, The Ohio Bridge, Harry Stevens states “By July, everything was finished.” Washington, in his writings, noted that the Covington-Cincinnati Bridge was completed in the summer of 1867.
On July 1st, Washington and Emily sailed for England, later visiting France and Germany. In November, their only child, John Augustus Roebling II, was born in his grandfather’s hometown, Muhlhausen. His baptism was in the same church as that of his grandfather.
THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMPLETION OF THE JOHN A. ROEBLING BRIDGE WILL BE CELEBRATED AT ROEBLINGFEST 2017 ON SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 2017, AT THIRD AND COURT STREETS IN COVINGTON.
The event, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., will feature free tours and free presentations. Included are tours of the bridge, the Roebling Murals, the Riverwalk Statues, and the Licking Riverside Historic District. The Ascent at the Roebling Bridge will host presentations by Dr. Paul Tenkotte, Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann, and special guest Kriss Roebling, a direct descendant of John, Washington, and Emily Roebling. Open forums, where you can ask questions about the bridge and its history, will also be at the Ascent.
RoeblingFest will again have the popular History Tent, and, this year, Smoke Justis will host additional displays in their newly designated Roebling Room.
A brief 150th Anniversary Program will take place at the north stage on Third Street at 2:15 pm.
RoeblingFest 2017 is presented by the Covington Cincinnati Suspension Bridge Committee with Cincinnati Bell as the primary sponsor.
Ralph G. Wolff is a civil engineer retired from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. He is a past-President of the Covington Cincinnati Suspension Bridge Committee, and the founder of RoeblingFest.
