Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-05-30
COL. W. A. ROEBLING.
Engineer OF the Brooklyn
Bridge.
HIS FAMILY'S LASTING
MONUMENT.
What He Thinks of the Great
Work Now Nearing Compile
ton.

What He Thinks Of the Great
Work Now Nearing Compile
ton.
NEW YORK, May 1S-A quiet
street is Columbia Heights, Brooklyn,
although removed not three minutes
walk from the noisest, busiest part of
the city, and within ten minutes by
boat from the centre of New York's
industrial pandemonium. 1t runs par
allel with the river, 100 feet above it
and 800 feet away from it, and the
damp air so hastens the growth of vege-
tation that now, while elsewhere lawns
are yet notified with brown and trees
half bare, the turf is a rich velyet of
verdure and heavy arboreal shadow
rests upon the pavement. The house
of wood, brick and brown and olive
yellow sandstone, are all old fashioned,
even antiquated; but they are spacious,
richly furnished, and of such value that
only the millionaire can afford to live in
one. From the upper windows of one
you can almost toss biscuit into the
river, you can overlook the river and
bay from Sandy Hook to He'll Gate,
New York, the cities on the Jersey
shore, and the Blue Orange mountains,
% miles away.
| called yesterday for an hour at
one of these pleasant homes, and was
ushered into an upper room, on the
cJh nf hn hanon hn
There was bay-widow in it almost
overhanging the river, and in the bay
widow telescope, its tube pointing
northwest toward the mighty span Of
the East river bridge Gazing stead
fastly through the instrument sat a
well-built, powerful-looking man, in
the prime of life, with head wonder
fully like that of General Grant, only
less stern and stolid. The deep blue
eyes smiled pleasantly. but under them
were cruel burrows that told of pain
and struggles with disease. His hair
and whiskers were streaked here and
there with gray, and as he rose and
took step toward me be trembled un-
steadily, telling how much less his
strength was chan 1t seemed.
1t was Colonel Washington A.
Roebling, Chief Engineer of the great
est bridge man ever built, but upon
which he never has and never will, I
fear, set foot.
Eleven and half years have now
passed since fire broke out in the
huge wooden caisson upon which rests
the Brooklyn tower of the bridge. On
that occasion Col. Roebling exposed
himself too much to the compressed air
in the caisson, and fell prey to that
strange and terrible malady the ''cais-
son disease" From that time to this
he has been confirmed, helpless inva-
lid, nursed and attended like baby by
his devoted wife, who has aided him
invaluably in making the multitudin-
Gus and intricate calculations required
in planning the great bridge. From
his window he has watched closely
every operation by means of the tele-
scope, and has received such minute
reports and given such explicit orders
that he has practically supervised the
stretching of every wire and the fast
ening of every bolt. But as | have
said, he has never set foot upon the
structure, and probably never will,
though he hopes to sometime to be
driven across it in an easy carriage.
/ asked Col. Roebling if, on the
whole, he was entirely satisfied with
his work.
"Yes," replied, 81 am fully satisfied
so far, but of course l do not know
how / will regard it when it is finish
ed and put into practical use. l hope
to like it as well then as now"
"Then it is not" | asked, yet out
of the realm of experiment Can you
not judge by other similar structures
how this will bear the test of use ?"
"Ah no." he replied with a smile
and shake of his head. "There is no
similar structure. The Cincinnati
bridge could be judged by the Niagara
bridge. But this one is so stupendous
in dimensions that it stands as much
alone as though no other suspension
bridges had ever been built in the
world 1t is all experiment, and /
have had to make experiments without
number to test all the work as we went
along. The latest and one of the most
important experiments was made just
the other day by Mrs. Roebling. She
is my right-hand man, you know"
YES" Joined the lady, 81 tried a
very important experiment. / drove
across the bridge in carriage, and |
was the first person that ever did So"
"But was that such wonderful ex-
periment?"
at was | wanted to see the effect
on the bridge of horse trotting over
it. SO Mrs. Roeblng drove across
briskly, and the engineers watched the
effect very carefully"
"And W hat was it,"
Nothing. There wasn't the slight
est vibration visible or perceptible any
where"
"What other experiments do you
want to try on it?"
81 am curious to see the result of
military marching on it. You know,
SOLDIERS generally break step anu tne
bands stop playing while crossing big
bridges, because the rhythmic pulsa-
tions set the structure to vibrating ter
ribly. But think it will be perfectly
safe for our regiments to march across
the bridge as usual on the opening day.
Of course | will have the engineers
keep close watch, and if there is any
vibration, the boys will have to break
step at once"
"What are the especial factors OF
stability in this bridge not enjoyed by
others 7"
"First and most important, perhaps,
| is the use of four cables instead of two.
These cables, you know, are drawn to-
ward each other in pairs in the centre
of the main span. Thus they form