BERWICK PARK RETAINING Wall. - A contract was made May 10th, 1875, with Peter Shortell, for building this wall. The wall is 104 feet long, and 10 feet 7 inches high, including cap-stone. It is built of rubble granite masonry laid in cement mortar, and has a cut stone capping surmounted by a wooden fence. The total cost was $3,528.76.

HOLYOKE-ST. RETAINING Wall. This wall is located on the line of the Boston & Providence Railroad at the end of Holyoke street. It was built by F. K. Ballou (under a contract dated Sept. 11, 1875), for the sum of $3,300. It is in all essential particulars of construction like the Berwick-park wall. The length is 85 feet, the height 10 feet 51⁄2 inches to the top of the cap-stone.

RAINSFORD ISLAND WHARF. — A contract was made July 21st, 1875, with Messrs. Ross & Lord, for building a new wharf to replace the old one at Rainsford Island. The new wharf is similar in form and construction to the one built at Gallop's Island in 1872. It is 506 feet long, with three faces for berths; the outer face is 125 feet long, and each of the two side faces is 129 feet long.

It is built with oak foundation and fender piles, hard-pine caps and floor timbers, and white-pine flooring, and covers an area of 15,661 sq. feet. The total cost, including a foundation for a boat-house, engineering expenses and superintendence, was $11,893.95.

TREMONT-ST. MALL CURB AND FENCE. A contract was made, October 5th, 1875, with the Cape Ann Granite Co., to furnish and set in place the curb and fence, for the sum of $10,974. The amount paid to said company and for other expenses to May, 1876, -$11,401.53.

The work on the ground was commenced October 25th, and is now completed. The curb is of hammered granite, supported at intervals of 11 feet by granite posts 5 feet 6 inches in length, set in cement concrete. These posts also carry the fence of cast iron, the posts of which are bolted to them, having sections consisting of two longitudinal rails between. At intervals of about 44 feet entrances are provided, each having 4 cast-iron entrance posts.

CONGRESS-ST. BRIDGE (OVER FORT POINT CHANNEL). (Called Eastern-avenue Bridge in the report of last year.) This structure, which was building at the date of the last report, was finished during the past year, and has been open to travel since Nov. 2d. A full description of this bridge and its approaches was given in the report of last year.

The work contracted for by Boynton Bros. and Freeman was completed July 1, the amount paid them being $142,786.53. The Delaware Bridge Company completed their contract for the drawbridge at a cost of $20,385. In addition to the above sums paid by the City of Boston to the contractors, the Boston Wharf Company paid to Boynton Bros. and Freeman, $21,474, and to the Delaware Bridge Company, $3,665; these payments being made for lowering the grade of the bridge 5 feet at the draw and for making the alterations required to adapt the draw and turntable to the new grade. Total cost to the city, $186,430.21.

This

MALDEN BRIDGE (CHARLESTOWN TO EVERETT). bridge, with the exception of the draw, has been entirely rebuilt. A contract for rebuilding it, at a cost of $35,300, was made with W. A. Kenrick, Aug. 13, 1875. The bridge was opened to travel Dec. 16, but a final payment has not as yet been made on this contract, owing to delay on the part of the contractor in completing some minor portions of his work. The new bridge is built with an oak-pile foundation, the piles being driven in rows about 16 feet apart, each row having 8 bearing piles and 2 spurshores. The piles are girder-capped with hard-pine sticks, 6 inches by 12 inches and support 12-inch by 14-inch hard-pine bolsters, on which rest the floor stringers, 12-inch by 14-inch, also of hardpine. The floor planks are 6 inches in thickness, burnettizedspruce, made water-tight with coal-tar and asphaltum. On the planking is a pavement of small granite blocks. On the west side of the bridge is a sidewalk 7 feet wide, and on each side is a railing of white pine, planed and painted. The bridge is 809 feet in length, including the draw, which is 100 feet in length. Its width is 40 feet. The abutment at the Charlestown end was taken down to the mud and rebuilt. The abutment at the Everett end was partially rebuilt. Extra work, including a draw-tender's house, has been done to the value of $893. Amount paid on contract to date, including extra work, $27,857.16. Total paid on account of bridge, to April 30, 1876, $30,796.14.

MERIDIAN-STREET BRIDGE. A contract for rebuilding the draw and rebuilding and extending the draw piers on this bridge was made August 25, 1875, with T. P. Richardson, of New York, for the sum of $25,093. The entire work was to have been completed on the 23d of Dec., 1875, but was not finished until March 11, 1876. No settlement has as yet been made with the contractor; the amount paid him

to May 1st was $12,781.85. Total amount of payments to April 30, 1876, $14,197.70. The new draw is 168 feet, 93 inches long between centres of end posts, and is 40 feet wide, with roadway 25 feet wide, and two sidewalks each 5 feet 2 inches in width. The trusses are of the Pratt pattern, with wooden chords and struts. A gallows-frame and iron suspension-rods sustain the outer ends of the bridge when it is turned off. The weight of the draw is carried principally on the track circle, although a portion can be carried on the

centre.

WEST BOSTON BRIDGE. A contract was made, May 20, 1875, with Ross & Lord, for building a new draw, repairing the draw-pier, and widening the draw-ways of the bridge. The draw-pier has been widened by driving a row of oak piles entirely around the outside; these have been capped and planked from low water to the top, and securely fastened to the pier. The pier is now 55 feet 6 inches wide. The open spaces in the centre have been filled by driving and capping oak piles, and putting on floor-stringers and planking; and alterations have been made by cutting away portions of the upper work to accommodate the increased length of draw. The draw-ways have cach been widened 6 fect, making them the same width (36 feet) as the drawways in all the bridges on the river below this point. The new draw consists of two Pratt trusses, with yellow-pine chords and struts, continuous over centre bearings, and cach 137 feet long from centre to centre of end posts, and 9 feet 6 inches in height. The ends of the trusses are suspended by wrought-iron rods from samson-posts of yellow pine erected on the centre of each truss, a light truss across the roadway tying together the tops of the posts. The draw is 50 feet wide from outside to outside of sidewalk; the distance between the centres of the trusses is 37 feet, and the distance from the centre of each truss to the outside of sidewalk 6 feet 6 inches. The contract price for the entire work was $37,200; the amount paid to the contractors was $37,689.12, one-half of which was paid by the City of Cambridge.

SWETT-ST. EXTENSION.- August 30, 1875, two contracts were executed: one with John B. Dacey & Co. for filling the extension of Swett street, from Albany street to Dorchester avenue, with gravel, and rip-rapping the side-slopes at $4.00 per square, and for laying slope-wall at $3.00 per square yard; the other contract was with Boynton Bros., for building the two wooden bridges required for water-ways,

for $8,013.75. The bridges are strongly and substantially, but at the same time cheaply, built, little else than spruce lumber being used in their construction. The longer of the two is located between the New York and New England Railroad and Dorchester avenue, and consists of two sprucepile abutments and three spruce-pile piers; the two central openings are each 23 feet in width; the two side openings each 17 feet in width. The shorter bridge is located between the railroad and Pine island, and is 30 feet long, with one opening 25 feet wide. The bridges, with the exception of the railing, were completed December 24, 1875. The filling was begun by J. B. Dacey & Co., October 4, and was prosecuted in a satisfactory manner until January 1, 1876, when the contractors stopped work on account of their inability to make arrangements with the New York and New England Railroad Company for crossing their tracks at grade. The filling of the portion of the street between the railroad and Dorchester avenue has been completed, and the rip-rapping of the slopes on that section has been finished. On January

3, 1876, a contract was made between the city and the New York and New England Railroad Company, for raising the grade of their tracks, and building a bridge over Swett street; also abutments for a bridge over the extension of East Chester Park. It is to be completed July 1, 1876. The Messrs. Dacey made a sub-contract with the railroad company for doing the filling on their road, and by this means were enabled to secure a right of way across their tracks. The work of filling Swett street, north of the railroad crossing, is now progressing rapidly, and the present season will see this improvement fully completed. The amount paid to Boynton Bros., under their contract, was $8,077.85. The amount paid to John B. Dacey & Co., to May 1, was $28,051.20; and the amount paid to the New York and New England Railroad Company, to the same date, was $13,200.

BACK BAY BRIDGES. Contracts for building the abutments and two bridges on the extension of West Chester Park have been made. One of the bridges is over the Boston and Providence Railroad, and the other over the Boston and Albany Railroad. The contract price for the abutments of the bridge over the Boston and Providence Railroad is $39,000, and for those of the bridge over the Boston and Albany Railroad, $41,000. Michael Meehan is the contractor for the abutments of both bridges, and has been paid on account of his contracts, $12,736.80, to May 1st. Boynton Bros. are the contractors for the iron bridge