Closing the gap in rebuilding 2,800 feet of Lake Pontchartrain trestle which had been destroyed by fire. The trestle, one of the great over- water railroad structures in the world, carries the Southern's tracks leading into New Orleans. The trestle is only a few miles north of the heart of the city. (Picture by Leon Trice, New Orleans)

Before heat-twisted steel rails were cool and while buried piling and bridge timbers were still smoldering, the Southern began reconstruction of 2,800 feet of Lake Pontchartrain trestle destroyed by fire during the early morning of June 7, 1954.

Men were at work clearing the way for reconstruction by early afternoon. Officers were on their way to the scene headed by Vice-President D. W. Brosnan who, with the others, would remain until service over the rebuilt trestle was restored on June 19.

Storehouses and material yards on the System were soon busy loading materials that would be required. Estimates of needs were furnished by engineers on the job and checked against drawings at headquarters points. Telephone calls and telegrams alerted suppliers that we would need their speedy cooperation in keeping the reconstruction program running on schedule. Construction equipment was assembled.

As more men reached New Orleans, work was scheduled on an around-the-clock basis with rebuilding going ahead from each end of the burned-out section.

And Southern Railway management organization paid off big on this job. No attempt was made to set records but engineering Officers of other railroads- men familiar ~;th the difficulties of such a job-have expressed admiration for the accomplishment of get- ting this work done in 12 days.

In the total reconstruction job, consisting of rebuilding 2,754 feet of the trestle, 1,113 piles had to be driven. These were creosote-treated piles ranging in length from 65 to 85 feet. If laid end to end, the piles would have stretched out for almost 16 miles.

A fire-damaged portion of the trestle.

Driven in groups of five and six, each group constituted one "bent" when "caps" (14 inch square timbers) were put in place. "Stringers" (9 inches by 16 inches) extended from bent to bent as supports for the track structure. Including ties and other lumber and timber required, a total of 505,000 board feet were used. (It may be easier to think of this as a solid piece of wood 12 inches wide, 12 inches thick and eight miles long.)

About 42 tons of hardware were needed, not counting track spikes, tie plates, joint bars, etc., used in laying track.

Track replacement required 85 gross tons of rail 2,850 track feet-with all needed accessories.

A steady flow of materials was maintained through- out the rebuilding period. A number of New Orleans firms kept their places of business open to us at all times to fill orders. Some things not available there were specially manufactured by plants at distant points and delivered in time to meet our needs.

Two other things were of great importance in expediting the work. Communication between New Orleans and other System points was uninterrupted and communication between widely scattered points in the lake area, including boats and other floating equipment, was provided thanks to the use of portable radio transmitting and receiving sets. That was one. The other was a lighting system that made the work- ing area during the night hours "look like New York's Great White Way," according to the men on the job.

And one incident in relation to the lighting will serve well to illustrate the ingenuity-as well as the hard work-that helped push the job through to completion promptly.

Mounting a floodlight. Four- hundred-watt mercury-vapor lights were placed on telegraph poles which parallel the trestle and carry Southern telephone and telegraph wires. Portable generators furnished the current for the lights.

As the trestle rebuilding progressed gradually from each of the undamaged sections toward the center of the burned-out part it was necessary for the center line to be maintained strictly. Transit men on either end needed a center point on which to sight their instruments. Not a bad problem in the daytime but difficult at night.

A white light was unsatisfactory for several reasons. Fog from the lake and steam from pile drivers drifting before the light tended to diffuse or obscure it. And so many white lights were being used for illumination that confusion could have arisen and time- wasting, labor-wasting errors occur.

A red neon tube, mounted vertically on a platform at the center point in the burned-out area, glowed steadily as the marker on which instruments were sighted.

Centers had to meet exactly as work progressed from both ends of the burned-out part of the trestle. A red neon tube was used as a sighting mark at night.

And as rebuilding closed the gap, with working forces approaching ever closer, the red neon tube glowed steadily.

Bridge builders may have little time under stress of such circumstances as those at Lake Pontchartrain to think like poets or philosophers but there were many to whom this red neon tube became a symbol.

It was a symbol of the do-it-yourself railroad industry. A symbol of determination to serve as the South- ern promises to serve. A burning light that represented the expenditure of great sums of money and the efforts of many men to restore railroad service to customers depending upon it.