to allow the mass to float during construction.  The lower half of the platform was built on shore, care being taken to keep the lower surface of the mass of timber out of wind.  The upper and lower surfaces of each timber were dressed in a Daniels planer, and all pieces in the same course were brought to a uniform thickness.  The timbers in adjacent courses are at right angles to each other.  The lower course is about 58 feet by 22 feet, the top course about 50 by 24 feet, thus allowing four steps of one foot each all around.  The first course of masonry is 48 feet by 21 feet 8 inches; the first course of battered work is 41 feet 81/2 inches by 16 feet 3 inches.  Thus the area of the platform on the piles is 1,856 square feet, and of the first batter course of masonry 777.6 square feet, or in the ratio of 2.4 to 1.  The height of the masonry is 78 feet above the timber, or 731/2 feet above the water.  The number of piles in each foundation is 312.  The average load per pile is about 11 tons, and the estimated pressure per square inch of the timber on the heads of the piles is about 200 pounds.

To prevent the submersion of the lower courses of masonry during construction, temporary sides of timber were drift-bolted to the margin of the upper course of the timber platform, and carried high enough to be above the surface of the water when the platform was sunk to the head of the piles by the increasing weight of masonry.

The center pier is octagonal, and is built in the same general manner as to foundations as the shore piers, but the piles are cut off 22 feet below water, and there are eighteen courses of timber in the grillage.  The diameter of the platform between parallel sides is 53 feet, while that of the lower course of battered masonry is but 37 feet.  The areas are as 2,332 to 1,147, or as 2 to 1 nearly.  The pressure per square inch of timber on the heads of the piles is about the same as stated above for the shore piers.  The number of piles under the center pier is 483.

The risks and delays by this method of constructing the foundations were much less, and the cost also, than if an ordinary coffer dam had been used.  Also the total weight of the piers is much less, as that portion below a point about two feet below the water adds nothing to their weight.

The piles were driven with a Cram steam hammer weighing two tons, in a frame weighing also two tons.  The iron frame rests directly upon the head of the pile and goes down with it.  The fall of the hammer is about 40 inches before striking the pile.  The total penetration of the piles into the clay averaged 27 feet.  The settlement of the pile during the final strokes of the hammer varied from one quarter to three quarters of an inch per blow.

There are 122 masonry pedestals, of which eight are large and heavy, carrying spans of considerable length.  They will all be built upon concrete beds, except a few near the river on the north side, where piles are required.