THE UNION Articles on
Miscellaneous Topics -- March, 2006


Suspension bridge cable anchors unearthed
, Bob Wyckoff, March 4, 2006


Suspension bridge cable anchors unearthed

By Bob Wyckoff
March 4, 2006

CONSTRUCTION was nearing completion on Nevada City's new Pine Street Bridge crossing of Deer Creek when Pacific Gas and Electric crews stumbled on unique 19th century artifacts while relocating underground utilities lines. As previously promised, this is the final chapter in "The Saga of Deer Creek Crossings."

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NEVADA CITY, AUGUST, 1996 - Using an 1862 newspaper account of the construction of the Andrew S. Hallidie suspension bridge, the Nevada City Public Works Department carefully unearthed the two north cable anchors from beneath North Pine Street. The cables were buried when the bridge crossing Deer Creek was built in 1862, and were the two north anchors until they were cut just below ground level in 1903 to allow building of the Gault bridge.


North Tower of the 1862 Halldie Suspension Bridge
showing cables described in this story.

The Gault was demolished in January 1996, to make way for the new Pine Street Bridge, which closely resembles its predecessor. The cable fittings had lain buried for some 134 years and were in remarkable condition, according to Nevada City's Engineer William J. Falconi, "because they were covered with tar as a preservative."

The cable anchors, called "deadmen" along with some 15 feet of gathered wire, have been placed in storage by Nevada City's Public Works Department pending preservation for suitable public display.


2500-pound anchor with cable remnant attached.

To better understand the excavated remnants of the cable in the attached old photograph of the north bridge tower is this description from the Nevada (City) Daily Transcript, June 22, 1862: "The cables that support the bridge are 503 feet long each, made of No.12 best charcoal bridge wire; each cable has 1,050 wires. 36,000 lbs. of wire were consumed in construction of the cables. Each cable is 4 inches in diameter ... (and) are connected at the ends to immense cast iron girders on anchors ... with an elliptic back ... in the form of a T. The girders weigh 2,500 lbs. each."

Shortly after the suspension bridge was opened to traffic in 1862, due to contractor error and not design, one of the south end anchor cables let go, plunging two men and a dozen oxen to their death on the jagged rocks beneath the bridge.

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Bob Wyckoff is a retired Nevada County newspaper editor and an author of local history books. E-mail: bobwyckoff@infostations.com or PO Box 216, Nevada City CA 95959.

Note from Herb: It's interesting that the old Halldie cable-suspension bridge was built the same year as the Covered Bridge at Bridgeport.


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