Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-04-26

Gath: went over the Brooklyn
bridge today, which is not to be open
ed for about two months, and is just
passable for an adventurer. |
am not sure that the figures about this
bridge, which | possess, are exactly
correct, but there are the elder Roeb-
ling's who designed it. 1t is suspen-
sion bridge, the span between the
towers being / 600 feet, or nearly a
third of p mile The approaches to
the New York bridge supported by the
cables are $40 feet long, but beyond
the anchorage there are huge cause
ways above the two cities of about
1900 feet long on the New York side,
and about $50 feet on the Brooklyn side
The whole bridge, therefore, as | walk
ed it to-day going in at the gate in
Brooklyn. which is rather on the top of
Hill, to the gate where | came out
opposite the City Hall Park, New York
was 5, GAO feet, or considerably more
than one mile. This gives you a pretty
good idea of the bridge. Some of the
largest bridges in the world are only a
mile, like that at Columbia, over the
Susquehanna river.
No suspension bridge in the world
bears any proportion to this East river
bridge, either in length, weight, cost
or general character and appearance
1t is gigantic monument, or rather
two such monuments, connected by a
stupendous net, and approached by
tremendous viaduc 8. Thu approaches,
especially on the New York side, are
magnificent, being made of granite aud
brick, the parrpets in hewn granite cut
in great sizes, and the galleries hewn
out of the solid stone. had just got
ont of bed from long sore throat, and
did not tsrry on this bridge to examine
it very carefully. The East River is a
very deep tidal stream, subject to ice
gorges and TO heavy winds, and oft n is
choked with fog so that the ferry boats
group around for an hour or more,
blowing and listening 70 shore bells TO
get into their slips, and riskirg col
lisions at all times, as through this
river runs nearly the whole of the en-
ormous commerce between New Eng
land and British North America and
Ncw York.
Tie principal problems before the
bridge builder were to get his piers
down in this deep water, and to raise
the money out Of two jealous and
rather corrupt cities to carry on the
work. Great Golfer dams had to be
made and cassions sunk, not only
through water but through quicksand
and other deposits on the bottom to bed
rock. / think that these two huge
towers, which now seem to be connec.
ted with the shore, but were not so
originally, stand something like eighty
feet under the level of the tide, while
they rise above it above 270 feet. The
towers, therefore are, something like
$50 feet high from where they begin
under the river to where they end,
higher in the air than slmost any
steeple, shot tower, flag staff or other
object in either city. Take either of
these towers and set them beside the
Washit gton monument, which is to be
over 800 feet high, and they would he
seven-tenths of It's height, and great
deal more effective in breadth.
Each tower, as it stands up and
down stream, is 1874 feet long at the bot
tom by fifty SIX teet wide. This is a
prodigious mass of masonry. The
cubical quantity of stone in the two
towers is said to he nearly GO 600 cubic
yards The towers are not bulls solid,
but hollow, and at their summit, $50
feet above their foundations, they are
100 feet wide by forty feet thick. You
of each Of these towers two houses side
by side, es en- twenty feet wide and ex-
tending backward 100 feet. Over these
immense towers run four cables, essen
TALLY the same in appearance and con
struction as those al G ncinnad. 1t is
said that the cables, 9th the bridge
they suspend and all the people, raj -
ROAD tran u ly loaded, teams, ct vii
weig, 1853 OBS, or in the neighburhood
of 100U0 900 pounds, or the weight of
nearly 10D 900 men of 100 p unds
apiece. la short, IA army of 70 0O0
soldiers, ready for battle, would weigh
about as much as these bridge towers
have to sustain in their extremity.
In order to get on the bridge, | had
~ Wdlh u ~ otttp hlIA ltOLI slS = tSb
river to Fourth er Fifth street, and
turning in there at the top of the hill
| came to huge ornamental iron
house, the skeleton of which is just
up, and which seemed to me to be
something like 100 feet long, and is to
be, | suppose, the depot of the railroad
company crossing the bridge. A much
smaller depot is on the New York side,
and not SO far advanced. These cars
are TO cross on the second story of the
bridge, so as TO be above and out of the
way, and that elevated railroad portion
is but partly finished. | gave a pass at
the gate, and was instructed to keep in
the middle of the bridge, on an asphalt
tum walk, till | should come 10 lad
der, and this | was directed to descend,
and then take a half finished board
walk on the right, and look out for
holes. The first hole to which came,
before l got on the bridge proper at all,
gave me view of people and wagons
80 far down below me that ! saw com
paratively little of the bridge for some
time, being engaged in looking for more