“Rainbow Bridge” No More

From the early hours until late in the evening on Sunday the banks of the River Don in the woodland in the vicinity of “”Rainbow Bridge” was thronged with persons assembled to witness the commencement of the final stage in the passing of the famous structure.

Soon ” Rainbow Bridge ” will be no more, and amongst the spectators were those of the older generation passing remarks of regret, those of a later date chiefly curious, and those with a penchant for engineering wondering how the operations would turn out.

For some weeks now, preliminary work has been in hand in the erection. of piers for the new bridge and two of the huge girders, each weighing 50 tons and measuring 114 feet by 9 feet by feet 6 inches were the objects of much attention froth the higher parts of Conisborough, where their long red lines were bulked in the station goods yard.

Through the night men of the Furness Shipbuilding Company (Construction Department), of Middlesbrough, worked cutting out the bars between the ‘ bows ” with oxyacetylene apparatus. This process lasted until about four o’clock in the afternoon, and in the meantime two huge cranes capable of lifting about 40 tons each had taken up position on each side of the bridge and had been ” jacked up.” After a lighter crane had made its last journey with the last fragment due for removal on Sunday the girders were shunted on to the down line.

The engineers were in sight of their objective, but a hitch occurred. It was found that owing to the height of the trucks containing the girders there was just a tiny bit too little of headroom for one of the cranes and though a way out was sought for about four hours, the girders had, in the end, to be taken to the sidings at Hexthorpe and the project had to be postponed.

Trains, therefore, had only one line across the bridge, and on Monday morning flagmen were brought into operation, and a maximum crossing speed was fixed at two miles pes: hour.

There was, however, very little delay, and an attempt was to be made to arrange another cross over to speed up traffic.

It was the intention to complete the up line last Sunday, the down line next Sunday and to remove the ” bows “themselves — there are three of them —on the Sunday following. At the time of writing I have not heard of the amended, arrangements, but I understand the work will be resumed on Sunday, and saw along the margins of the river there will be a unique “Feast “attraction. When the bridge is finished there will be only immense plate girders, , the “Rainbow.” will have disappeared, but it is fairly save to prophesy that the name ” Rainbow Bridge ” will cling to the ‘structure.