Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-09-02
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Special Correspondence.

LETTER FhOM NEW xOhAs
Special Correspondence.
New YORK, Aug. &c, 1873.
A spirited war is again in progress
over the future of the big East River
bridge, which has already swallowed up,
including interest, over $l2,OOO,O0O,
and which is probably not more than
half completed. Being out of money to
go ahead with, the Bridge Commission
ers have made the usual requisition
upon the Comptroller for fresh issue
of bonds as provided by law for the
raising of New York's Third of the ex-
pense. The Comptroller has fatty re-
fused to comply, on the ground that
there has been gross extravaganza. mis-
management and fraud in the conduct
of the work thus far that the legal limit
of expenditure will be passed long before
the structure is finished that the bridge
when built will be nuisance to ship
ping, and in any case of no advantage
except to Brooklyn. The Corporation
Counsel of New York city being applied
to for an opinion wrote an elaborate one
to the effect that Comptroller Kelly had
no option in the matter. but was bound
to issue the bonds. Still the Comptroll-
er holds out and refuses to ..fork over
until a judicial decision shall have been
obtained. The newspapers have taken
it up. the majority supporting the Comp
troller in his action, and thus the mat.
ter stands. The force of workmen have
been dismissed, and everything is at a
deadlock.
Therei is doubtless colored gentlemen
somewhere in this woodpile as witness
the growth of the estimates. A promi-
nent merchant who knows the whole
story recently expressed himself as fol-
lows: 1.-The BRIDGE" he said. sis more
gigantic swindle than the Court House
or the Capitol at Albany. 1t began in
the same way, with demand for small
appropriation, and year after year the
grasping Ring have cried for more, more.
In 1860 J. A. Roebling estimated the
cost at S3,00O.0O0; in 1866 he increas-
ed his estimate to S4.0O0,OO0; in 1867
to z 100000; all this for height of
| 200 feet. In 1872 his son, Colonel w.
A. Roebling, made the estimate SO, $780,
900, although the proposed height of the
bridge had been reduced from 200 to
1876 feet. In 1878 the estimate was
SIS, l45,O65, and / belidve it will 60 on
increasing until it reaches S25, 0OO,0
There seems to be no limit to the grasp
ing capacity of the Bridge Ring, and un-
less the financial officers of New York
shut down on them they will continue
to demand money, until they have sad
died the city with an enormous debt in
: addition to her already too great respon'
sibilities."
.. More than this it is said to be a seri
Gus question whether the bridge with it,
enormous weight would be safe after i
was done. So we are in a rather unen
viable quandry. If the bridge goes OF
to completion we have got to stand
J drain of money for years with the posi-
bility of having after all only an unsafe
and practically useless structure to shoV
for it. If the work is abandoned tn,
two cities of New York and Brooklyn
not only are out of pocket many million
. of dollars but have exposed themselye
} to the ridicule of the world for having
reared two such costly monuments o
!. rockies jobbery as the piers Of the Brook
Ign Bridge would then have proved to be
: AS the dispatches come hurrying il
| from the plague-stricken South, eacl
uearing more dismal tidings than it
predecessor, some uneasiness has beel
T felt for the safety of New York, fror
4 which town it is,of course, impossible t
s entirely exclude fugitives from the vel
low fever districts. One or two allege
cases of the disease have indeed bee
! discovered here, but SO great vigilance
exercised at quarantine and Throughout
n the Health Department that I presum
we really have little foundation for GU
fears. The appeals for help, which Me-
q York is always the first city to receiv
= in cases of local distress anywhere i
y the country, have began to pour in, an
I as usual, are promptly responded t.
= Several thousands of dollars have alread
! been contributed and forwarded an
g more is being done in the same diret
$ ton. The violence and rapid spread
q the scourge has had a serious effect o
: our Southern trade for this season
amounting in some lines to its almos
It complete ruin.
y Among the measures introduced
9 check the spread of the disease is til
!. novel one of disinfecting the mails b.
j, fore forwarding from the yellow fevt
e towns.