FROZEN NIACARA.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 490, 24 April 1909, Page 10

FROZEN NIACARA.

: Sir, —In your issuo of April 14 you report, "Niagara is frozen'from bank to bank." also "tho steel arch. bridge Vis ,threatened. . In the Hawke's Lay papers of same date it is reported .that "the bridge is'..threatened." I _do not ' known who is responsible for the mistake, but being well "acquainted with Niagara. Falls- City, N.Y., I teel quite certain that neither :of the three steel bridges'are. in danger. , Tliore are. three steel bridges crossing 'the gorge'below the falls near the.city,' and. they are all about 200 ft. abbve tho love] of tho river. The first -is tho suspension foot-briigo immediately below the falls, and from which can be obtained one of the finest views of the complete cataract. This new. all-metal arch bridge occupies; the site of the old suspension bridge,' and was completed .in the summer- of : 1898,' and .carries the greatest arch in the world, a span of BGB feet.. . This bridge is used only for trolley-cars, horse' vehicle's,, and foot, passeri-gei-s, :and u's :.the foundations of ;tho' arch are set : in tho rock hundreds of feet above the _water,' the ice: could 1 not threaten' the stability-of. the structure ; . ,;i . ■.; Three: miles} below—where the river is at : its narrowest point near thoHowri i'arid railway station of "Suspension Bridge"—a'r# situated two steel.'railway bridges, the steer cantilever bridge of the Michigan Central Railway and the ; steel arch of tho Grand Trunk, which cross the chasm immediately over the whirlpool rapids at a height of 246 feet; and whose single spans are supported by steel piers set into'solid masonry many feet above the river. ;.

I think - there is no doubt that the threatened , bridge is the wooden foot and wheel-traffic-bridge which crosses from the city to Goat Island, _ and is only ten feet abovo tho water. This bridge is built upon three piers rising from the torrent, and it is estimated that more tourists cross this structure . than any other' pleasure walk in TJ.S.A. The river,., which is two miles, wide a fow miles above the fall, here narrows to 3600 feet, or less thaji three-quarters of. a mile, and'from half a mile above the bridge to 50 yards below, where it takes the final plunge,''it drops forty feet; '■ increasing in speed from' seven' to thirty 'miles per hour. Careful estimation places the volume of ivator passing nnderr this , ! low, - wooden bridge at one hundred and fifty million cubic feet per minute.—l am, etc;, " , • PROSPECT POINT. Waipawa, H. 8., April 20: v ■