Image ID: AAEZ

Haupt, United States Military Railway Department. Construction And Transportation. No. 76.

Haupt, Photographs Illustrative of Operations In Construction And Transportation, As Used To Facilitate The Movements Of The Armies Of The Rappahannock, Of Virginia, And Of The Potomac, Including Experiments Made To Determine The Most Practical and Expeditious Modes To Be Resorted To In The Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction Of Roads And Bridges. No. 76–No. 76 represents a raft of twenty-four boats in the act of crossing a ferry. The ferry is formed by stretching two ropes across the stream, at a distance apart of about 100 yards. One of these ropes is intended for the loaded rafts, the other to return the empty ones. A place should be selected for the crossing where the water is shallow near the shores, so that while the raft is pushed from one rope to the other, the men may wade in the water, and jump in or out without stopping the raft. In this way with a movement of two miles per hour, troops may be thrown across a stream at the rate of 10,000 men per hour, allowing between rafts intervals equal to their length. With four ropes, 20,000 men can be thrown across in the same time.