Beaufort County Road Commission to William Blount Rodman, 03
March
1921
Notes: One constant concern for Bath was access by road. This letter from the Beaufort County Road Commission to William Blount Rodman,
Jr., illustrates the difficulties of maintaining a road through farmlands that needed constant drainage.
From appearances, it will only be a matter of a few days until your dredge will be ready to cut through the Bath Road. According
to the action of the Road Commission they granted you the right to make this cut providing you provided this opening with
a bridge complying with our specifications.
I passed this site yesterday afternoon and could see on the ground no lumber for the construction of this bridge this should
be provided at once so that traffic may not be interfered with more than is absolutely necessary.
That no hitch may occur in the acceptance of the bridge by the Commission I wish to give you below specifications that will
be acceptable tto [sic] the Conmission;
The lumber for this bridge should be heart pine throughout, with the ecception [sic] that heart cyprus [sic] may he used for
caps and girders, but the decking must be heart pine. The caps should be not less than 8” X 8”, the girders or stringers should
be 4”X 10” spaced two feet on centers, the decking should be not be less than 2” thick and 16 feet in length layed on nine
stringers in each bent spaced two feet on centers,and [sic] spiked securely thereto. I understand that the canal is twenty
feet or more in width in which case there should be two equal spans in this bridge and a center bent of piling. There should
be not less than four piling[s] spaced evenly under each cap sill. These piling to be not less than 10 inches in diameter
and driven at least three or four feet into the bottom of the canal and to a firm bearing. Behind each shore bent of piling
there should be built a wall of two inch plank to serve as an abutment wall to prevent the wash of the canal undercutting
the bridge approach. The understructure of the bridge should be securely braced with cross bracing to secure good stability.
I trust that the above is sufficiently clear but if not I will be glad to explain further,and [sic] if necessary submit a
sketch for your guidance,
Sincerely yours,
[signature: H. G. Bragaw]
Location:
Special Collections, Joyner Library, East Carolina University
