Testimony of the man who drew the plans for the Ashtabula bridge.
Joseph Tomlinson is sworn. Resides in Ottawa, Ont. Is General Superintendent of Lighthouses in the employ of the Canadian Government. Was engaged in bridge-building from 1840 to 1870. He made the drawings for the iron Howe truss bridge over Ashtabula Creek--the one which had lately fallen. He did this under instructions from Mr. Stone. He never approved of a wrought-iron Howe truss over a large span. It makes an unnecessarily heavy bridge, and all the strain accumulates at the end braces. Notwithstanding its weight, it would have been a strong, durable bridge had the main braces been sufficiently strong. They were not made as large as designed, and it was his intention that they should be strengthened, but his connection with the Company was severed on account of a difference that arose between himself and Mr. Stone concerning the bridge.
Mr. A. Gottlieb, engineer of the Keystone Bridge Company, at Pittsburg, Pa., was next called. He testified as follows:
When the wrecked bridge was constructed, the building of iron truss bridges was in its childhood, compared with the progress made since that time.
The first objectionable point in the bridge, therefore, was the unnecessarily great dead weight; the second, the lack of sufficient section in the upper cord; also the manner in which the beams forming said cord were bound together, which brought much more strain on some of them than on others.
I have made a careful examination of the wrecked bridge as it lay at the bottom of the river, and also of the map of the bridge as made by Mr. Tomlinson, and I think that I have obtained a very good idea of the construction of the wrecked bridge. I do not think that the Howe truss pattern is very well adapted to a heavy iron bridge. During my examination I did not see anything in the plan or construction of the bridge that would lead me to think that the extremes of heat or cold would injure it. I never knew of any other wrought iron bridge constructed on the Howe truss pattern.
Before the committee appointed by the Legislature of Ohio, the following testimony was also given by Mr. Amasa Stone, the former President of the Road: