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of the Freight Warehouse
The roof of the freight warehouse area of the Choctaw depot was supported by massive wooden beams fabricated into a truss arrangement using a design which was similar to railroad truss bridges of that era. The horizontal components were 40-foot single piece beams, 6 x 8 inch dimension, cut from the heart section of Arkansas virgin growth pine timber. When viewed in cross section (after demolition), these beams contained well over 100 growth rings, and additional rings had been removed during the sawmilling process. The angled beams were hand seated into notches cut in the horizontal beam, and the inside supporting beams used tongue and groove joints for maximum strength. The entire assembly was held together by a ten-foot steel rod (1.5" diameter) through the center of the truss and a smaller rod on each side.
The primary reason for the widespan trusses, rather than conventional vertical supports for the roof, was to allow the entire inside of the freight warehouse to be free of inside poles which could present obstacles to stacking or moving freight.
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