The most difficult section of the line was in the valley of the Namiti. Here it was a stern fight for supremacy with physical obstacles for mile after mile. The weight and dimensions of every article had to be restricted within severe limits to facilitate handling and carriage by the primitive systems extant, and when the question comprised the component parts of steel bridges, the problem demanded searching deliberation. It was found, however, that the mules could handle weights up to about 600 pounds, and that the natives could struggle along with loads varying between 200 and 300 pounds, but neither man nor beast could cope with anything exceeding 7 feet in length. [Illustration: THE FAUX-NAMITI BRIDGE COMPLETED The structure, 220 feet long, spans a wedge-shaped fissure and is 350 feet above the water. The bridge is approached on either side through a tunnel. RAILWAY BUILDING IN CHINA] Such handicaps would appear to militate against the achievement of any startling engineering performances. Yet, as a matter of fact, the French engineers displayed a striking instance of their remarkable ingenuity and capacity to meet awkward situations. The Namiti gorge disputed the progress of the line. It is a deep, wide, V-shaped fissure, one side dropping down perpendicularly for several hundred feet. The line pierced its way through one bluff, and had to jump across the rift to enter the opposite wall of rock. It was a matter of 200 feet across, and the rail-level had to be carried 300 feet above the river below. [Illustration: THE LINE SKIRTING THE SEASHORE NEAR OKITSU, TOKAIDO, ON THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS] The situation demanded a novel solution. Erection by false-work was out of the question, as also was a cantilever bridge; and, again, the question of transporting the material to the site had to be borne in mind. Monsieur Georges Bodin, the presiding engineer of the Parisian Société de Construction des Batignolles, however, rose to the occasion, and evolved an unusual type of bridge, and at the same time elaborated a novel method of carrying out its erection. The bridge consists of two essential parts forming leaves, or bascules. When set in position they have the appearance of a widely-opened, inverted V. To carry out the task of erection, first a shelf was excavated in each cliff-face at the requisite height to carry the anchorages below the tunnel-mouths overlooking the gap. The top members of each bascule were riveted up, laid vertically flat against, and fixed firmly to, the cliff-faces. From this foundation each bascule was completed.