N&W in 1911-Kenova bridge

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
May 28, 1911

WANT 700-FOOT SPAN IN KENOVA'S BIG SPAN
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Rivermen Lay Claims Before Board of Government Engineers and Tell of Losses
    The recent meeting of the United  States engineers, river men and Norfolk and Western men at Kenova to hear complaints relative to the removal of one of the channel piers of the Kenova bridge was an important one.  The board of United States engineers consisted of Col. James Warren, Major Henry Jervey, and Mr. Taylor.  This board hears the complaints and decides upon the merits of the case.
    The river men and coal men who are the complainants or petitioners in the case were represented by Capt. Frank J. Tilleu, secretary of the coal exchange; Capt.  F. W. Bell, towboat captain and pilot; Capt. J. H. Dippoid and Capt. Arthur Mosem,* representing harbor No. 29, which has 225 members; E. A. Burnside, captain and towboat pilot, representing the Great Kanawha Improvement Association; Capt. T. T. Johnson, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and Chief Engineer Churchill of the Norfolk and Western company, was in attendance looking after the interests of his company.
    It developed at the meeting that in the year 1909 alone where were damages to the coal traffic alone by reason of the Kenova bridge of $77,950.
    Rivermen say that the increased number of furnaces fill the valley with more smoke, that electric lights at Catlettsburg cast shadows deceptive in their nature; that the boats are towing greater fleets of coal keeping abreast with the railroads, which now have cars carrying 60 tons of coal; that the dike at Twelve Pole river interferes.  They ask that the span between the piers be made 700 feet in the clear instead of 500 as it is now.
    All the evidence was submitted to the United States board and a decision will be rendered later.
*Name was indistinct on the microfilm.  The best interpretation is shown.
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[As documented in an article in Railway Age Gazette, Vol. 55, Sep. 5, 1913, the old piers were reused, so the river men and coal men did not get their way.]

Gordon Hamilton
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