1907 - Bridge Works Busy

[NW Mailing List]

Roanoke Times, April 7, 1907

BRIDGE WORKS BUSY

Being Worked to Fullest Capacity -- Night Shift Contemplated

    A Times man had the pleasure yesterday of a visit to the busy 
works of the Virginia Bridge Company, and was surprised at the 
magnitude of this plant and the great activity which was displayed 
everywhere around their shops and yards. They have recently completed 
a very large fireproof structural shop, and at both ends of this are 
long runways on which a number of large cranes which handle the steel 
into the shop and the manufactured work out of the shop, and it was 
surprising to note that these cranes could handle large girders 
weighing  about 40 tons with apparently the same rapidity and ease as 
one ton. The writer noticed that there was something like 2,000 tons 
of bridge work and girders which had been finished and piled on the 
shipping yard awaiting cars for shipment, and loading was being done 
on three sidings at one time while he was there. Some of this work, 
he was told, was it for the Norfolk and Western railroad and the 
balance for various railroads and other industries throughout the South.
    The company have been running their works both day and night for 
about five months and the production last month was the largest in 
the history of the company. The had over 400 men on the pay rolls at 
the Roanoke shops, and the writer was informed that the company 
employs 200 men at its Burlington shops, and that shipments from 
there last month were very heavy. The Virginia Bridge Company also 
has a number of erection crews throughout the country constructing 
bridges and other iron structures. Among other large contracts 
recently completed is a double-track bridge over James river for the 
Norfolk and Western at Lynchburg; a double-track bridge over the 
Elizabeth River for the Tidewater railroad at Norfolk; three draw 
spans for a Florida railroad; five railroad bridges over the Coosa 
river at Talladega, Ala.; a seven-story bank and office building in 
Vicksburg, Miss.; the structural steel in the Norfolk and Western 
foundry building at Roanoke, and a number of other similar structures 
in other parts of the South.
    The company have an exceedingly comfortable and modern office 
building located at the works, where the writer observed officers, 
engineers, draftsmen, and clerks numbering about 40 men. This plant 
has always been Roanoke's most important commercial industry, and has 
been constantly adding to its capacity, force and equipment since it 
was started some fifteen years ago.

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- Ron Davis