Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/307

 9 U. 8. Opinlon of the Court. and Supreme Courts of Oklahoma. There is, of course, resting upon the employer the duty of providing a suitable and safe place and structures in and upon which its employds are called to do their work, and this plaintiff was charged with no duty in respect thereto. A full tatement of the testimony would unnecessarily pro- long this opinion, and a brief outline must suffice. The bridge was a pile bridge, the piles having been, as claimed, driven down to solid rock. This rock substratum sloped from the north to the south side of the river, the first bent striking the rock at eight or ten feet. At the place where the bridge sank the depth to the rock was eighteen feet. Above the rock was quicksand, and the piles were driven through it. The bridge was originally constructed some weeks before, but during high water a portion of it had washed out. It was rebuilt upon the same plan and with apparently no further protection than when originally constructed. At the time of the injury there was again high water, and that high water made a roaring torrent of the flowing stream. When the train upon which the plaintiff was fireman came to the river it was found that upon the bridge there had been placed a loaded flat car. Dis- engaging itseft from the balance of the train, the locomotive moved on to the bridge and pulled that car off. As it did so there was a slight subsidence at the place where the bridge finally gave way. So the engine returned to the north bnk of the river, while the gang of employds, under the direction of the foreman and the superintendent of construction, pro- eeeded to place a false span underneath the bridge at the point of subsidence, and after awhile notified the train employes that the bridge was safe. Thereupon the engine moved slowly on to the bridge, and when it got to the place where there had been a prior subsidence the bridge sank so as to drop the en- gine into the river, and in that way the plaintiff was injured. Now it appears that by actual experience the bridge as originally constructed gave way in time of high water, and yvt was rebuilt, 'ithout change of plan and without adding

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