+2 THE KANSAS CITY BRIDGE.

transportation over the railroads or public highways leading to the said

bridge.

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Suc. 10. And be tt further enacted, that any company authorized by the

Legislature of Missouri, may construct a bridge across the Missouri River, at the

City of Kansas, upon the same terms and conditions provided for in this Act.
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It was early decided, that the alternative clause authorizing the construction
of a pivot drawbridge, would be the proper one to adopt for Kansas City. The
topography of the river and its banks is such as to confine the choice of a
point of crossing opposite the town within narrow limits; while just above,
between the Bluffs and the Kansas River, spreads out a flat bottom land, the
natural point of connection and exchange between all the railroads centring at
this city, occupied by them at an early day. A high bridge crossing would
have made it impossible to reach depot grounds, or connect with the other roads
on this bottom, without the use of gradients of 90 or 100 feet per mile, and a
drawbridge, requiring an elevation of only 10 feet above high-water mark, was
accordingly selected.

The provisions of the Act of Congress, concerning drawbridges, were
mainly framed to apply to the Mississippi River, and when extended to the
Missouri, some of them could seldom be safely complied with to the letter.
Thus the requirement that the spans adjoining the draw should be 250 feet each,
designed to accommodate the immense rafts which float down the comparatively
tranquil current of the Mississippi, becomes useless in the Missouri, whose turbu-
lent torrent forbids the handling of any rafts, save those composed of a few
cotton-wood logs, run down along the shore a few miles to the nearest saw-
mill. Besides, as at almost every point where a bridge would be likely to be
attempted, the channel of the Missouri lies close to one of its shores, the
attempt to place spans of 250 feet on each side of the draw would result either in
locating one leg of the draw beyond the main channel, or in building one of
the 250 feet spans partly over dry land.

This alternative was presented at Kansas City, and it was deemed that the
placing of the draw in the best possible location over the main navigable chan-