THE LINE SKIRTING THE SEASHORE NEAR OKITSU, TOKAIDO, ON THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS
The situation demanded a novel solution. Erection by false-work was out of the question, as also was a cantilever bridge; and, again, the question of transporting the material to the site had to be borne in mind. Monsieur Georges Bodin, the presiding engineer of the Parisian Société de Construction des Batignolles, however, rose to the occasion, and evolved an unusual type of bridge, and at the same time elaborated a novel method of carrying out its erection.
The bridge consists of two essential parts forming leaves, or bascules. When set in position they have the appearance of a widely-opened, inverted V. To carry out the task of erection, first a shelf was excavated in each cliff-face at the requisite height to carry the anchorages below the tunnel-mouths overlooking the gap. The top members of each bascule were riveted up, laid vertically flat against, and fixed firmly to, the cliff-faces. From this foundation each bascule was completed.
While the mantling of the steel-work was progressing, other gangs were busy at work cutting out large niches in the cliff-face, some height above the tunnel portals, and on these platforms powerful winches were erected. Each of these carried heavy chains measuring 900 feet in length. The transport of this essential piece of tackle was interesting. Large gangs of coolies were disposed in Indian file 7 feet apart, and the chains were trailed over their shoulders like a gigantic serpent. In this way they wound around crags, climbed steep bluffs and threaded narrow defiles for some 13 miles. These chains were passed around the winches and the outer ends were attached to the upper points of the bascules.
When each bascule was completed it was pinned firmly to its anchorage, the lashings securing each leaf of steel to the rock face were knocked away, and the two arms were held merely by the chains. Gangs of coolies were stationed at each winch under the supervision of a French engineer, and at the word of command the chains were slowly paid out, causing the bascules to heel over towards one another. Care had to be exercised that the lowering proceeded evenly from either side until the two arms met at a point. Workmen then swarmed up the arm on either side and rapidly drove in the pins and rivets which secured the two leaves firmly in position. The whole task of lowering and securing took only four hours, which was a noteworthy achievement.
Two short steel towers were now erected on the haunches, or central part of each bascule, to support the steel deck of the bridge, the members of which were brought up to the mouth of the tunnel and launched by being pulled out over rollers. With the spanning of the Namiti gorge, the most difficult part of the railway line was completed. When the enterprise was undertaken it was computed that the railway could be completed for £3,840,000, or $19,200,000, but by the time this gorge was spanned a revision in the estimates showed that the cost would approach £6,620,000, or $33,100,000.
In Japan, the strides in railway development within a comparatively few years have been quite as notable as in China. In the former country, however, the conversion from primitive means of communication to steam locomotion commenced at an earlier date, and was attended with greater success. As in China, the railway invasion of Japan was fathered by an Englishman, Mr. H. N. Lay, who visited Tokio as a guest of the then British Minister, the late Sir Harry Parkes, in 1869. He approached the Government and stated that he was prepared to furnish the funds necessary to commence the railway conquest of the country.
He made his offer at a peculiarly appropriate moment. The military regency which had ruled the country for so many centuries had drawn to a close, and the new Government welcomed the proposal. Foremost among the supporters of the project were the present Count Okuma and the late Prince Ito. Mr. Lay undertook to raise a loan of; £1,000,000, or $5,000,000, and this was accepted, while Mr. Lay was entrusted with the carrying out of the scheme. The promoter of the enterprise secured the services of Mr. E. Morell as engineer-in-chief, and in 1870 the work commenced. But friction arose between the English capitalist and the Government, who did not approve of the financier’s methods. The agreement was nullified, and the Oriental Bank was established to carry out the undertaking, Mr. Morell being retained in his engineering capacity.
He set to work in grim earnest. The question of gauge had to be settled first. This vital detail was threshed out in all its bearings, a gauge of 3½ feet was selected, and the building of the first line between Tokio and Yokohama—a distance of 18 miles—commenced. Once the fashioning of the grade began, other schemes were put forward. Among them was a line from Kobe to Osaka, a distance of 20 miles, which was put in hand, while an extension of the latter line to Otsu was surveyed. The first railway in the country was opened on October 14, 1872, amid elaborate festivities, in the presence of the Emperor. Within six years of Mr. Morell’s arrival, no less than 70 miles of line had been laid and opened. This was a highly satisfactory and energetic start for a young country, and the success of the experiment spurred the Government to more ambitious schemes. These, however, were doomed to temporary derangement owing to internal troubles, and the rebellion in South Japan in 1877, which drained the imperial exchequer to such a degree that no funds were available for railway-building operations.
Among these early enterprises was a trans-insular railway to connect the Pacific coast of the island with the shores of the Sea of Japan, with ferry-steamers on Lake Biwa to connect the inland break in the railways due to that sheet of water. By this time the Japanese engineers considered themselves competent to build railways, for they had proved apt pupils under Mr. Morell’s training. Native talent found its first opportunity on the Kioto-Otsu undertaking. This was a peculiarly difficult enterprise, but the Japanese engineers rose to the occasion, though English engineers were retained to advise them and to design the bridges. On this line tunnelling had to be carried out, and this was the first occasion on which the Japanese engineers were faced with this work in their own country. Still they succeeded in complying with the original plans to perfect satisfaction, and had the pleasure of learning, when the road was opened in 1880, that the cost of construction was less than the estimates.