Proposals to Construct Harpers Ferry Viaduct

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS.
Proposals will be received by the subscriber at Harpers-Ferry, on Saturday the 19th of this Month, for the construction of the Masonry of the Viaduct, to be built across the Potomac River at that place. The masonry will consist of one abutment and seven piers. The face of the abutment and piers will be of ranged rustic masonry extending towards an average of at least two feet from the exterior– the filling in of six of the piers and the backing of the abutments to be of the best rubble masonry, and the whole laid in the best mortar. The foundations of six of the piers will be formed in the bed of the river by throwing in large stones and completely filling the interstices between them with smaller stones. This foundation will be raised from the bottom of the river to within two feet of the surface of low water, at which level the ranged work will commence. One of the piers will stand upon the tow path of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, will be built hollow and filled with dry rubble stone and earth. The foundation of this pier will be of ranged work laid in water cement, and the lower course will rest on puddling clay about two feet in depth. The thickness of the walls of the solid part of this pier will be six feet. The six piers in the river will be ten feet thick at bottom and eight feet at top, twenty-five feet high and fifty feet long, with their ends, both up and down stream, of a curved form, resembling the gothic arch. The abutments will be built against and united to the wall between the Cana[l] and Rail Road. It is believed that the water, in which the piers will be founded, will in no case exceed seven feet in depth at the low stage of the river, and for most of the piers will not be more than four to five feet deep; and that the bed of the river at the site of the bridge, is entirely of rock. Persons disposed to contract for the work will, of course, examine the site and judge of these matters for themselves.

Recommendations for character and capacity will be expected to accompany the proposals of such as have not been contractors on the works of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company.

No ardent spirits to be used on the work.

The subscriber will attend at Harpers-Ferry on Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th of this Month, for the purpose of giving further explanation and receiving proposals.

By order of the President and Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company. CASPAR W. WEVER.

September 3, 1835.
Office of the Supd’r of Grad’n and Masonry.