- Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 -
Hello again. As always, we continue our excursion along the old railway.
Today's topic will be bridges and overpasses. It seems, what could be easier, although making them is one of the hardest jobs? But no, and here we come across incomprehensible miracles. I have heard many times the version that during the construction of the first railways, builders adapted the existing structures for bridges and viaducts, and the origin of these structures is rather dark. Let's take a look.
Probably not, the structures are being built. Only the appearance of the stone is slightly weird. The feeling that this is a previously processed stone, which had already been in the masonry somewhere before. Maybe there are other photos?
Although the photo is black and white, it is clearly noticeable that the stone on the top of the bull and on its sides is completely different in color, and most likely it differs in the material of the stone too. This is the construction of a bridge over the Zeya River at the beginning of the 20th century. Really, for the sake of such an occasion, stones of different types were obtained and transported from afar? And if you take a closer look at the stone on the sides?
Promotional video:
Something suspicious is that the stone is perfectly round in the bottom photo, as if the finished stone block had been cut into separate stones and reassembled with a solution in a caisson at the bottom of the river. Well, in the top photo, all the stones have the same width (between the front and the inside), as if they were made in the same shape, like a raw brick. Very strange. Another photo of the construction of this bridge:
Look closely at the stones. If they were cut off, then there should be heaps of garbage. But he is not. And all the stones have a suspicious rectangular shape. As we know, nature abhors right angles, and in this form, stones are not found in their original form. What is this? Actually, nothing complicated, this stone for the exterior decoration of the bridge bulls is simply cast from geopolymer concrete, the secret of which has now been lost (officially, at least).
Well, this is quarrying stone for the construction of a bridge over the Tom River. The feeling that the builders are dismantling an ancient megalith, pretty battered by some kind of cataclysm.
Hard work in general - building bridges. And responsible. Bridge builders generally have a tradition, during bridge testing, to drive the entire design and construction team under the bridge and load as much as possible. Nice tradition. And here is a photo of the test of a bridge across the same river Zeya in the Alekseevsk region (clickable).
As we can see, there is no project team under the bridge, but the top of the sky above the bridge has been cut off by a retoucher. Stop.
I would have thought for a long time why it was suddenly so cut, if not for the material kindly sent by agrish. Only the road is a little different geographically (South-West, now Ukraine-Moldova, but not the essence).
Very interesting objects suddenly begin to appear on railway bridges, overpasses and pedestrian bridges across the tracks. The quality is not very good, but what is there is, to put it mildly, surprising.
This is the famous Boyarka. The question arises, why is there so? Pavka Korchagin scurried, storing up fuel, even if the bridges at this station were illuminated with something incomprehensible (more precisely, it is clear that not fuel)?
Here is about the same, but higher. There was a version that there were kerosene lamps in such lanterns, but after such a complexity of the design, this version will not be consistent.
In general, the same thing. Incomprehensible lanterns are on the body of the bridge, and are an integral part of its structure.
Well, such a tunnel was once at the Zhmerinka station (I recall something from Willie Tokarev's work about Zhmerinka, from which they fled to America). I wonder if such a tunnel is still alive there (it would definitely have won the nomination for the most affordable housing for individual citizens)?
Interestingly, nowhere in the volumes of executive drawings of those years is there anything even similar to brackets for lanterns located on the spans of bridges. Apparently, another mystery covered in darkness.
Until next time. To be continued.