Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-12-07
The East River Bridge.


Every recent traveller to New Yofkby
the Sound boats, must have noticed ths
rapid progress which the great towers
that are to form the abutmenta Of the
bridge between New York and Brooklyn
are making. They loom up on either
side of the channel like great answering
monuments commemorative Of Some
great event now past. Below the dwell-
Jugs are dwarftd 30 insgnificance. AT
night they look like silent guards over
the sleeping cities. BY day they DIRE
hives OF busy hustle But the bdstle Is
now 50 far up in the air that it 10 lot
much noticed. kll the noise there Is, 10
made by the click of hammers, and the
rattle Of wires and pullys. For all work
has reached a height OF one hundred add
forty feet, where the wind blows 50 tie
mendousl y that men cannot speak aud be
heard, and often it is hard to keep foot
ing. Everything is dore by power.
Blocks Of stone that weigh ten tons rise
TO the top in ten seconds, aud are ready
to be dropped into their cement-spread
bed in a moment more. The pile grows
at the rate Ot about a foot day. Every
thing is on an immense scale. The
openings for the roadway, at the height
Of one hundred and eighteen feet, which
look so small aud cleit-like from below,
are really spacious passages. The boEs
ard bars which look so slender are teu
inches wide and two thick, and the rests
which hold them in place are as big as
the top piano stool The tower will be-
about one hundred and eighty feet bigh
,,-lt, kx T., hot h..
bridge pass over them. The total weight
of the tower is estimated 81 sixty-eigbt
thousand tons, and the average weightof
the blocks Of granite is about six tons.
The lightcst blocks used weighed about
two tons, aud the heaviest seven toDsand
halt Up to the present time there
have been about fourteen lives lost in the
construction OF the Brooklyn pier, in
cluding those who died from the effects
OF air pressure in the caisson. The great
ten inch cables, the chief supports of the
spanning wires, will be carried over the
top ard anchored to the ground nearly
uine hundred feet in the rear CT the site
of the piers. The ascending grade from
the piers TO the center oil the bridge will
be sixteen feet, but this will be almost
lItlDtlcEIDIlOLc W IGIi SGtll lIOlll tue IlN6Ts
The tower is not, as most persons wonld
suppose, solid mass OF masonry, butit
is penetrated to the water level with
two great wells or shafts, about eighteen
or twenty feet square, and lis feet deep.
The hanks and center of the tower,
marked on the outside buttresses, are
solid. There are now about fifty
men engaged on the Brooklyn tower,
but on the New York side there is a
larger number employed and the work is
being pushed with great vigor. One
great feature in passing over it will be
the magnificent view to he obtained from
its great height Lower New York,
below Fourteenth street, Booklyn, Jer-
sey City, The East River, and the whole
expanse of the bay with its islands, forts
and shipping, will be spread out in full
sight. The cleaning gray of the Hud-
son River forms background to the
confusion Of form and color which marks
the city, and the blue of the bay Is
broken by the brown circle of shore
and fort which surrounds the green
heart Of Governors Island. The bridge
will be a place of resort simply from
its sightliness and fresh air. -a