Verrugas Viaduct
From Engineering, 17 April 1891 [1]:-
'On the 4th of January last the new bridge, .... which replaces the
famous structure of the Baltimore Bridge Company,
was opened to public traffic, thus restoring direct communication by train between Lima and Chiola, the
present terminus of the Oroya Railway in Peru.
The original bridge was erected in 1872 to the designs
of the late Mr. W. W. Evans, of New York. It consisted of four Fink suspension type truss spans, three being 100ft. long, and one 125ft. in length. These spans were carried on three piers, the central one
being 252 ft. high, which at the date of erection was
unprecedented, and the other two 145 ft. and 178 ft.
high respectively. Each of these piers was built up of
tiers 25 ft. high, consisting each of twelve Phoenix
wrought-iron columns arranged in three sets of four
columns each, the sets being spaced twenty-five apart
longitudinally. ..... It was thus through no lack of
strength that the failure of the work was due, but
the position of the central tower in the very bed of
the torrent, its ironwork being actually below the
surface of the ground, exposed the bridge to what
actually did happen in March, 1889. Heavy floods
took place throughout the valley of the Rimac. Many
bridges and banks were washed away by side streams,
and on the 23rd a waterspout in the Verrugas ravine
brought down a landslip or rock slide which pushed
the central pier out of its path like a straw and
brought down half the bridge. Though damaged by
the fall of the wreck the side towers and spans stood
firm, ..... The Oroya Railway was at this time being worked
for the Peruvian Government by Messrs. Grace
Brothers, of Lima, and when later the Government
leased their railways to the bondholders under the
"Grace contract," Mr. M. P. Grace, with the approval
of the consulting engineers in this country, Messrs.
Livesey and Son, called for designs for rebuilding the
Verrugas Bridge from Mr. Leffert L. Buck, of New
York; this gentleman, besides his well-earned reputation as a bridge engineer, happened to have been the resident in charge of the work at Verrugas in 1872, and therefore understood fully the difficulties of the
site. Mr. Buck decided that it was hopeless to
utilise the remaining towers and spans as a part of any
new structure, at the same time he hit upon the excellent idea of using them as a scaffolding by which to
erect the new work. His design was for a cantilever
bridge with two piers, almost in the same position as
the old piers, two side spans of 140ft. each and a
central opening of 235 ft., the abutments of the old
bridge being used again and the total length of bridge
being as before, 575 ft. Tenders having been invited
in the United States the contract was let by Mr.
Grace to the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company, of
Trenton, in April, 1890, their contract not including
shipment or erection in Peru.
All the pieces of iron were limited in size, owing to
their having to be carried in small steamers and
launches, and by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and
herein lay one great source of delay and anxiety connected with the work. Had any one piece, large or
small, out of many hundreds, been lost or mislaid in
the five or six handlings necessary between leaving the
works at Trenton and reaching Verrugas, great annoyance and delay would have been incurred. Fortunately, and in spite of all drawbacks, everything came to hand safely, and the erection of the bridge proceeded rapidly. There were in all about 700 tons of
bridge iron and plant, the first shipment reaching
Verrugas on July 1, and the bridge being practically
completed on January 1, six months later.
The work was superintended on the spot by Mr. P. A. Fraser, engineer for Mr. Grace, and Mr. A. D. Riffle,
assistant to Mr. Buck, the rivetting and erection being
done by a bridge gang sent out especially from the
United States, and by sailors of all nations picked up
at Callao, and changed constantly. The terrible sickness prevalent at Verrugas struck down nearly every
one of the staff, 17 out of 20 of whom took the fever
and 9 out of 17 of whom died. From 100 to 200 workmen were on the weekly pay rolls, and numbers of
these got sick and left every month.
The mode of erection was as follows .....'