Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-06-28
The Brooklyn Bridge--HOw the Ca
bles Were Made.

After the towers had been built
and the anchorages made ready, then
came the strangest work of all. To make
the cables and then put them over the
towers would be difficult matter. Very
likely it could not be done at all. So the
cables were made, just where they hang.
one small wire at a time. The cables
are not chains with links, nor are they
twisted like ropes. They are bundles of
straight wires laid side by side, and bound
together by wires wound tightly around
the outside. They called the work ''weav-
ing the cable
At the Brooklyn anchorage was placed
powerful steam-engine, and on the top
of the anchorage were placed two large
wheels, and with the aid of proper ma
chinery the engine caused these wheelS,to
turn forward OF backward. From each
wheel was stretched steel rope to the
top of the Brooklyn tower, over the river,
over the tower, and down to the New
York anchorage. Here it passed over an
other wheel, and then stretched all the
way back again. The ends were fasten-
ed together, making an endless rope, and
when the engine moved, the ropes travel
ed to and fro over the river. For this
reason they were called the ''travelers."
There were, besides these travellers,
two more ropes placed side by side.
On these were laid short pieces of oak,
thus making foot-bridge on which the
workmen could cross the river.
There were also other ropes for sup
porting platforms, on which the men
stood as the weaving went on. On each
traveller was hung an iron wheel, and as
the traveller moved, the wheel went with
it.
1t took only ten minutes to send two
wires over the river in this way. The
men on the foot-bridge and on the plat
forms suspended from the other ropes
guided the two wires into place, and thus
the cables were woven, little by little,
two slender steel wires each time, and
carefully laid in the place till 5434 wires
| were bound together in a huge cable, fif-
| teen and three-quarter inches in diameter.
The work was fairly started by the 18th
of June, 1877, and the last wire was laid
October ), 1878. There are four cables,
each 357S1a feet long, and if all the wires
in the four cables were placed in line,
| they would reach over fourteen thousand
miles.
The work was long and dangerous.
Sometimes the wire would break and fall
into the water, and an hour or more would
be spent in hauling it up and starting
once more The men on the foOt-bridge
or on the cradles high in the air watched
every wire as 1t was laid in place. To
start and stop the engine, men stood on
| the top of the tower and waved signals to
the engineer. Such mass of wires would
not very easily keep in place, and as the
work went on, number of wires were
bound together into little bundles or
ropes, and at the end all were bound to-
gether into one smooth bundle or cable.
This whole work,-bridge, approaches,
anchorageS, railroads, depots, and ALL
cost sixteen million dollars in money and
thirteen years of time What is the grand
result? Is it worth all this? How many
people can use it In day? Let us see,
| On the approaches the bridge is one hun
dred feet wide. On the suspended part
it is eighty-five feet wide. This gives
room enough for two lines of teams each
way, OF four in ALL All the teams going
in one dsrection take the right-hand road,
the heavy teams on the outside and the
lighter ones on the inside. The two roads
will allow one thousand four hundred and
forty teams to pass in an hour. or four
| teen thousand four hundred and forty in
ten hours. There will be eighty cars on
the railrord, and twenty cars can travel
on the bridge at once. When all are run
ming, eighty thousand people can cross in
an hour The grand promenade will hold
ten thousand people at time, and forty
five thousand people can cross on foot in
an hour. The total length of the walk is
five thousand nine hundred and eighty
feet NEARLY mile and quarter), and
of this one thousand five hundred and
seventy-five feet are included in the span
above the river.-From "The Brooklyn
Bridge" by Charles Barnard, in the July
st. Nicholas