Bridging the Hillsborough

Transcription

1 Bridging the Hillsborough bv J.P. McCloskev The first three spans set on their pilings. Note the round piling to the right. This is what the center, swing span will be set on. B orn in Charlottetown in 1873, James Patrick McCloskey spent most of his working life as a storekeeper. McCloskey s on Queen Street was a typical store for its time - groceries, ice cream, cigarettes. Soda pop cost a nickle, candy bars just one cent. If you lived in town, you probably knew him as the nice man who went door to door selling Watkins products. You might have also seen his many 'letters to the editor/' though for those he used his pen name: "Minor Saxon." J.P. Assembly yard. 32 McCloskey loved words and ideas. He also loved to write. Over the years he filled ten scribblers with all sorts of essays, stories, history, philosophy and memoir. Mostly a synthesis of other sources, McCloskey's musings are also the accumulation of lifetime of ideas, sifted through reflection, with only the things he considered important set down in words. And occasionally, to he delight of the historian, a bit of memory that shines a bit of light on our past. One of McClosky's brief remembrances concerns the building of the Hillsborough Bridge, where he worked as a labourer. In the spring of 1901, work began on building a bridge across the Hillsborough River where it emptied into Charlottetown harbour. The Prince Edward Island Railway had decided to run a branch line from Charlottetown to Murray Harbour and, being a frugal company, bought a secondhand bridge that had been built at Derby Junction on the Assembly yard at the foot of Water Street.

2 Caisson being launched from assembly yard. Miramachi River in The firm of M.J. Haney of Toronto was hired for the project, which included creating 14 masonry piers on which to re-assemble the spans and a substantial causeway to connect the bridge to both shores. Aside from the railway itself it was the biggest construction project undertaken on the Island to that date, and the bridge works on the waterfront became the busiest job site in the Province. An assortment of steam shovels, cranes and engines, pile drivers, Steam shovel delivering ballast. Assembling a caisson. tugs and dredges were crammed into an already busy harbour. Carpenters, machinists, steel workers and "sandhogs" - men who specialized in working at the bottom caissons a hundred feet or more below the surface, subject to crippling and sometimes lethal attacks of the bends - worked for four and a half years to complete the bridge. Even though their bridge was closed and dismantled in the early 1960s, the remnants of their work can still be seen, especially at low tide. The work was dangerous, and by the time the bridge opened in 1905 three workers had lost their lives. McCloskey begins his memoir recalling two of the men who died. I worked in the plant at Connolly now Peake;s wharf. You say only 2 lives lost - nevertheless it was a dangerous place - many close escapes. Mr. Sutherland, deaf as a stone, met with a terrible death. The bridge Assembling a caisson. 33

3 Crew working on a piling. Delivering concrete to a ballast assembly. was out where caissons were being sunk in place. Very large piece of machinery - 2 large wheels in middle mashed into each other. From these to the projection to the driver cab probably at a distance of 30 feet ; was about 45 degrees. (Herb Vanlderstine was the driver.) The machinery was at rest immediately before the accident. Mr. Sutherland was so deaf he did not hear the levers in the drivers cab being thrown into place and being about to oil the machinery he placed his right arm past the elbow between the large wheels. When the wheels started he could not pull his arm out and his head was pulled down between the cogs where they meshed. Atkins was working on the boat with us at the wharf. Night watchmen at the caisson at bridge was off job. Atkins volunteered to take his place. It was a stormy night ; blowing almost gale winds. Seeing that Atkins body never was found it is thought he fell inside caisson and was covered up in the concrete next morning before he was missed. One day at noon we were all going off for noon hour when the Pneumatic hammer crew. Two piers near completion. 34

4 .V <.'.'"'*<... ^ TV-- ; : «W.-^^'i.- '" '.v;'. " -, '.;.": r ; '"'">'V'^ " ' v ;*"».! i'^fe^; ;''V, : >«,.: ;.V;. ; ; ; v.., ' V v r " ^ WillilllilliHI: Dredge. boom of the large derrick about 90 feet long and weighing more than a ton gave way and boom fell suddenly to ground. Had John McLaren, the painter, been 1/2 second later he [would have] been killed. As it was it grazed his hindward heel as he stepped forward and he was laid up for six months on crutches. Another day a greenhorn was rushing old Dinny [Dennis] Dowling, the blacksmith who was doing a job for him. Old Dinny picked up a 2 1/2 inch iron pipe and gave it to him over the head. I thought he was killed, for Dinny was a big strong man. If you took Dinny quietly he would take kindly to you but if he was taken otherwise he was an awful crank. Dinny and I were good friends then and always after. The poor fellow who was hit was out cold for an hour. Another day four of us were threading seven inch pipe. There were four steel handles about eighteen inches long attached to the die and two men (I being one of them) on each side of the pipe. The die slipped out of place and with the strength of four men behind the blow struck me square Work barges and dredge. 35

5 The bridge originally spanned the Miramichi River at a place called Derby function. It was dismantled and shipped by rail to Pictou. in the middle of the forehead, broke my eyeglasses and was the first and only time I was ever knocked out by a blow What was strange about it was that I felt no pain in receiving the blow, but had it struck me in the temple I might have been killed. Minor accidents were occurring every day in different places on the works. I often seen the sandhogs in the "bends." Some of them took them after leaving the compression chamber and were in the streets. I saw two of them at noon hour take them outside the old jail fence on Pownal The greater air pressure could lead to a condition called "the bends/' 36 Street. Men were being knocked over the wharf in one way or another and had to swim around before being pulled out of the water. They were liable not to be noticed in the noise and bustle. For instance, the boat we worked on was off the wharf about 15 feet with a 10 inch walk plank between, so as to adjust to the rise and fall of the tide. Well, one day at low tide I happened with another chap to be carrying a work horse (6 ft high x 6 ft long) across this plank from the boat to the wharf. Each of us was between the two legs of the Sandhogs worked at the bottom of the caissons. horse carrying the weight on our shoulders. I came behind on the boat side, the other fellow led. He should have walked straight out about seven feet on the wharf but as soon as he put foot on wharf he turned at right angles and of course caught as I was between the two horse legs I was dumped in the dock with the heavy wood horse on top of me. Charlie Hanson worked with us on the boat and he had a like experience. And so it went on every day here and there. There was lots of humour there too. Sol Thompson was Mechanical The disassembled bridge pieces were then shipped to Charlottetown where they were reassembled. Here, an assembled box span is maneuvered into position.

6 it*/ %, Swilll* si WmmSS/mii, i im-fr/s.fyj. 1 J 1 llll is Ssfft'^ IIP 1 P ''' '' MI Unidentified sandhog. Unidentified worker. Unidentified sandhog. Superintendent. He was one of the head men on the steel work, saw everything at a glance; very little to say spoke softly in giving an order or asking a question, but he had that way about him that every man did what he told them to do without any question. The foreman on our boat was an Englishman by the name of Kantic who came here with the M.J. Haney Co. He was a good man to work for but fond of hard drinking off the work at night. Sometimes when he came about the next morning he was all in and wanted to sleep more than anything else. There was a large unused steam boiler on board. We used to put him in the rear door of this where the tubes were cleaned out and close the door and let him sleep it off. I think Thompson was used to him for when he came on board if Kantic was not there Thompson never asked where he was. You never wanted to listen to Kantic;s English experiences the second time for with every emphatic statement with the tips of his fingers he gave you a accompanying emphatic jab in the ribs. Being wise, as soon as he began a tale you got busy at your work and just didn't bother to listen to him... After the bridge was finished, J. P. McCloskey settled into life as a storekeeper. After closing the store on Queen Street, he and his wife Mary moved to Water Street, and in the 1950s he moved to Cornwall to live with his daughter Katherine. He died there at the age of 90 in His writings were brought to our attention by one of his grand daughters, Joanne Donahue, and this excerpt appears with her permission. * ^^^^^^^^^M The bridge was opened in