The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-05-17
A Wonder of the Age.

One week from to-day the colossal struct-
ure spanning the East River between New
York and Brooklyn will be thrown open to
travel with public ceremonies appropriate
to an event of so much Importance. Invita-
lions have been extended to persons of dis
tinction in all parts Of the country to join
the inaugural procession across the bridge,
and among those who are expected to be
present is the President of the United States.
There will be military escort, of course,
and, on the Brooklyn side, the trustees will
formally turn over the completed work to
the mayors of the two cities, after which
there will be more or less felicitous speech
making. The occasion well deserves, in
deed, all the pomp and glory with which it
is proposed to invest it. Although purely
local in its character and purpose, the con-
struction of this great work long ago became
completion will be regarded everywhere
with something of the pride and satisfaction
which the tunneling of the Alps, the open
ing of the Suez Canal, and the laying of the
first submarine cable excited. It is true
that the execution of such an undertaking
involves the discovery of no new principle
of mechanics, but the conception itself was
bold and daring, and the project, alike as
respects the time consumed, the labor re-
CURED, the materials employed, and the
money expended, will take rank among the
greatest feats of an age that viii always be
celebrated for its vast undertakings.
Upon this gigantic enterprise was spent
no less sum than fifteen million of dollars,
and the result is bridge mile in length
and eighty feet in width, suspended from
two steel cables, fifteen inches each in diam
eter, at height nowhere less than one hun
dred and thirty-five feet above the East
River, and forming between the two cities a
public highway as safe and commodious as
any metropolitan thoroughfare! Regarded
as triumph of mechanical skill simply, it
is prodigy which dwarfs all previous
achievements in the same direction on both
sides of the ocean.
AS to its utility, that, perhaps, is still some
what problematical, inasmuch as for some
time to come toll will be exacted from
every person who crosses it, either on foot
or by car, carriage, or vehicle of any de-
scription, and it is, therefore, not likely to
be used as freely as would be the case
were it made absolutely Free We observe,
however, that the New York papers are
already beginning to speculate upon the
practicability of uniting the two cities in a
single corporation, and that company has
been projected for the erection of another
bridge further up the river, and these are
surely significant indications of the drift of
public opinion as to the effect which the
establishment of rapid transit between
these centres of population is likely to have
upon their mutual fortunes. New York
has a wonderful expansive force, and it
would not be strange, considering the re-
strictions which the conformation of her
territory imposes on the operation of that
force, if the opening of this new outlet for
her teeming population should have results
quite as important as any that have yet
been predicated upon it.