Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-07-03


About New York.
Editorial Correspondencel
New YORK, June "a, 1872.
One of the greatest engineering achieve
ments of modern times is the building of
the great bridge over East river to connect
Brooklyn and New York Though not
half completed l speak of it as an achieve
ment, for the work has progressed far
enough to demonstrate that the difficulties
apprehended can be overcome The prin-
cipal obstacle anticipated was to secure for
the immense piers solid foundations. These
piers are immense piles of masonry built
on the banks of the river and as they must
bear the principle strain of the
great bridge, are being constructed
as strong as possible. The pier on
the Brooklyn side is nearly finished.
1t will be over one hundred feet above the
water and is about fifty feet by twenty
five In thickness. A firm foundation was
secured for it without much trouble. The
New York pier is proving far more expen-
sive and difficult of construction, Its
foundation is about seventy-eight feet be-
low high water mark and rests on an i'm
mense caisson weighing seven thousand
tuns. This caisson is built of wood Its
sides are twenty-three feet think. The in
terror is large room, now being filled
with concrete to support the roof and sides
and hold 1t in place while the pier is being
built upon it. 1t was towed in position by
six tug boats and sunk by putting upon il
layers of stone and pressure of fifty-thrce
thousand tuns. Workmen are now down
| in the inside of this immense structure
| laying the concrete and securing it in its
proper place. Air is forced down into
the room by pumps and the men are
relieved every two hours. Many of
them have suffered intense pain from
working in this air. Roebling, the cngi-
! in. 4, - fl,s,x Al.
son will last for fifteen years. In the mean
| time more permanent foundation will be
laid. The bridge will he two hundred feet
| above the river, and il will he the longest
and strongest bridge ever built. 1t has al
ready cost over two millions of dollars.
THE THIEVES AT WORK.
In the above facts your readers have the
| data from which they can form some idea
of this immense piece of engincering work
! The achievement is grand one. But OF
| course such fine field for thieves as an
enterprise of this magnitude offers, can not
be neglected 10y this rapacious breed. They
/ have their fingers in the bridge treasury
and are bleeding it freely. Tie HoTlti
! charges and has strong grounds for its spe-
/ cifications, that the Brooklyn Ring arc
swindling the bridge company out of thou.
sands of dollars. According TO the World
! one of the leaders i'm this ring is n prjnci-
pal owner in the Brooklyn Idgyc, one OF
the leading democratic papers in the Unit.
ed States and just now one of the most
jealous Journals in the Greeley reform {?
movement
1 When | see the Brooklyn Ring that
/ controls and plumbers that Democratic city
fastening its clutches upon this bridge
company's treasury; when | think of tho
millions stolen by the Tammany Ring OF
| New York, in the construction of the CITY
| Hall; and when | gee the Government
| postof1ice rapidly rearing its magnificent
! proportions opposite the Astor House, not
n collar OF the money appropriated for its
construction misappropriated and not q
days time wasted, am led to wonder that
| people OF sense can not see and appreciate
that the difference in the cases cited grows
out of the fact that in Brooklyn and New
| \ DIRK the piunderers are upheld and pro-
tected by Democratic officials. while in the
government work, the honesty and eff
cheney of President Grants administra.
ton protects the public treasury. The
Treasury Department under Mr.. Mullett
eXpends annually millions of dollars in
erecting public buildings at various points
in the country, but, so far, even after
searching investigation upon charges
openly preferred in Congress, not a dollar
OF the heavy appropriations has been sto-
len.
The Tammany and Brooklyn thieves are
of course active Greeley reformers, while
the honest Treasury architect and his as
socates are maligned as part and parcel OF
Grants corrupt Ring"
The New York postoffice building is
progressing rapidly. The second story is
nearly completed. 1t will be the finest
building of the kind on the continent As
the beauty and grandeur of the structure
become more apparent, thousands stop on
Broadway every day to admire.
NEW YORK ITEMS.
The heat has been intense in New York
for several days. One soda water yender
disposed of thirteen thousand five hundred
| glasses, ice cold, last Saturday.
Excursions are the mania, and all the
accessible groves within thirty miles of the
city are in use every day.
New Workers are fleeing to the country
or to Europe, BY the fourth of July all
the summer resorts will be crowded.
About fifteen steamers leave this port every
week for Europe and all go out crowded
State rooms in some of the steamers are
| spoken for weeks ahead. Over fourteen
! thousand passengers were landed in New
York in May from Liverpool alone.
see New York fashion journal says
! that of all the fashionable thousands OF
| ladies that visited the Jerome Pork Races,
not one wore q Dolly Warden Ladies'
assure mo that this style of dresses has
| been rfdicuLed out of fashion by the press.
The tradesmen are Disguised, and Stewart
10 selling e. erything of the dolly Var
DEM pattern at ruinously low prices. The
1 fashionable lady readers of the CHRONTCT n