Continuing to consider the history of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway:
"Degradation of technologies, as exemplified by the construction of the Krol tunnel";
"Riddle of the shape of railway tunnels";
"The Phenomenon of Old Railway Stations";
"What is the mystery of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway", "Miracles of the Amur Tunnel".
I never cease to be amazed at the fantastic technologies that were used then.
Take, for example, the construction of railway bridges. During the laying of the Transsib, 3901 were built !!!
Promotional video:
Imagine, in 15 years to build such a number of bridges, besides, at the same time, the track bed was filled, the rails were laid, the tunnels were being drilled, the stations and the corresponding railway infrastructure were built.
Bridge over the Yenisei.
Construction of a bridge across the Zeya.
The construction of the bridge across the Amur was carried out at a later time, but the very fact of building a railway bridge, 2.6 kilometers long, in 3 years, is very impressive.
Bridge over the Amur, 2.6 km long.
A more modern photo of the Amur Bridge.
Now, let's imagine how many pillars (bulls) of the bridge were built during this period?
Support of the bridge over the Amur. As you can see, the newly built support is already darkening from the water.
Any bridge has at least two supports, so multiply 3901 by 2, we get 7802. Seven thousand eight hundred and two stone supports, which still stand quietly today, although trains run along them, which weigh 20 times more than pre-revolutionary trains.
Support of the Amur bridge in the woods. Reconstruction is in progress.
Support of the Zeya Bridge in the woods. Reconstruction is in progress.
But two supports are not enough for the bulk of the bridges. There are bridges with 10 supports, and there are 20.
Therefore, we will assume that it took to build several tens of thousands of supports.
Each support is a work of art, in technical performance. We see that all the supports (bulls) are made of granite, which has been expertly worked (by hand? !!!).
Moreover, if you show the supports of different bridges, then you will not see any differences between them, except for the height. The ideal processing of granite raises questions.
Where did they get so many stonecutters?
What tool did you process that you were able to complete the rounding?
All these supports are united by one more thing - there is not a single photograph of their construction. There are photos of all the stages of laying tracks, installing metal trusses, but there are no photos of making supports.
Specialists are needed for the construction of each support. You cannot catch up with several thousand people and instruct them to put up stone supports that will stand for hundreds of years.
First you have to train these people. But we need specialists in the installation of caissons (a caisson is a metal device designed to work at the bottom of a reservoir, where water was forced out by air pressure, and people could do work), masons, stone cutters.
An interesting excuse for how quickly the bridge supports were made. In the history of the buildings of all bridges, it is written that the iron for the caissons did not have time to deliver (this is no wonder, there are so many supports !!!), so the engineer Knorre invented (and even patented) wooden caissons.
In winter, they made a wormwood (approximately in the place where there will be a support), but the ice was not completely cut out, leaving a thin jumper so that the water would not go into the hole. It's not clear how thin, because a person also weighs a lot? And with what they scraped the ice, because it is dangerous to hammer? The ice will just crack further and all the work is in vain.
The only photograph * of the construction of a support * on the Yenisei. Here you can sign anything, like * lifting of a sunken barge *.
Then they waited for the ice to freeze, and then scraped it out again. So they walked to the very bottom of the river. Then everything was strengthened with logs.
Question: how did you create a sealed caisson made of wood, especially since the depth of some rivers, at the site of the construction of bridges, exceeded 15 meters? But, it has also been announced that it will sink 20 meters into the ground.
In the photographs of the construction of bridges, the supports are already in place. Moreover, by the darkening of the color of the support at the water level, it is clear that they have been standing for a long time.
Supports of the bridge over the Zeya river.
Historical documents indicate that there was an instruction to do everything according to the most economical option. Now look:
Support of the Amur Bridge.
Shore support of the Amur Bridge.
On ALL supports, on all railway bridges, there is a place for the second track. This was what the Soviet government took advantage of when the single-track bridges could no longer cope with the passage of trains.
This is called the most economical option? !!!
And what are the rates of construction !!! The bridge over the Amur, 2.6 kilometers long - 3 years (it is still justified that it is long because of the First World War), the bridge over the Yenisei, 1 kilometer long - 3 years. But at the same time, 3899 more bridges were being built.
We have that, all the inhabitants of the country were tunnel boring machines, bridge builders and rail layers? !!!
I think there was a catastrophe that wiped out the previous civilization. From it remained the railway, which was covered with clay, and the supports of the bridges. The tsarist government simply mastered the empty territory, digging out the road and installing the trusses of the bridges on the supports.
This is also indicated by the "construction" of the Amur bridge, when a miracle made of reinforced concrete is attached to the handsome bridge, with stone supports.
Reinforced concrete extension to the Amursky bridge. The supports are completely different.
Postcard issued for the opening of train traffic on the Amur Bridge.
And the bridges of this civilization were double-tracked, they simply did not have enough funds to rebuild the tsarist government.