The Philadelphia newspaper, The Press, published on Monday, December 6, 1858, on page 2, the following brief news item:
"Henry B. Edwards arrived at Washington, D. C. on Friday evening last, having left the camp on the south side of the Canadian river above Chouteau's old trading post, on the 16th of November last."
This news shows that the design requirements for Beale's six iron bridges, which Edwards was carrying, were already in federal hands in Washington in early December 1858 while Lt. E. F. Beale was still working west along the 35th parallel laying out his wagon road in the Texas Panhandle headed for California. This news is important in verifying that the six patented Whipple iron bridges could have been built in early 1859 with federal money by A. & P. Roberts & Co. at the Pencoyd Iron Works (which A. &. P. Roberts owned) in suburban Philadelphia.