Shooting rapids in a scow
is a very different matter from riding through them on a plank.
The King Rod Truss.
[Illustration: Fig. 100. The King Rod Bridge.]
Our bridge building operations were not entirely confined to the island.
Two of them were built on the Schreiner grounds at Lamington. Reddy
Schreiner's home was situated a little distance above the town where Cedar
Brook came tumbling down a gorge in the hills and spread out into the
Schreiners' ice pond. Thence it pursued its course very quietly through
the low and somewhat swampy ground in the Schreiners' back yard. Over this
brook Reddy was very anxious to build a bridge. Accordingly, before
returning to school in the fall Bill made out a careful set of plans for
the structure, and after we had gone the rest of the society, under
Reddy's guidance, erected the bridge.
The structure was a cross between a suspension bridge and a spar bridge.
The banks of the stream were so low that, instead of resting the floor of
the bridge on top of the inclined frames, as we had done over the mill
race, it was suspended from the spars by means of wires. The crossing ends
of the spars were nailed together and their lower ends were firmly planted
about four feet apart in the banks of the brook.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94