The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-08-17

ing shops, covering an area of thirty-fve
acres and employing over thousand men.
They are said to turn out new car every
thirty minutes, wonderful annual total,
but not beyond the requirements of the
road, when we remember that over 10000
freight cars are in daily use.
a WONDERFUL BRIDGE.
One of the wonders of this railway is
Stephenson's britannia tubular bridge,
erected over the Menia straits, which cost
three million dollars and four years time
to build. This bridge is 1913 feet long.
The station at Holyhead has fifteen miles
of sidings and the platforms are lighted
with electricity.
HOTELS.
One of the features Of the London and
Northwestern, as well as all the frst-class
railroads In Great Britain, is the large
number of frst-class hotels they have along
their lines, owned and managed by the
railroad companies They are great ac-
commoda;ion to travellers, and are well
patronized.
ANOTHER GREAT BRIDGE.
All l have said above is about English
railways and English enterprise But right
here in little Scotland, whose territory is
less than any one of twenty of our States,
we have an example of Scotch enterprise,
that should astonish the world A bridge
is now being built across the mouth of the
river Forth, few miles from Edinburgh,
that goes ahead of anything in the bridge
building line so far. 1t is being built by
the North British Railway Company, back
ed by three other railway companies. 1t
has already cost over eleven million dollars
and six and a-half years labor Of some s.
600 men, and not flushed yet, and will
cost some two or three million dollars more.
| believe nothing in the way of private en-
terprise has ever come up to this. We
have the Brooklyn bridge, that cost more,
but the governments of the cities of New
York and Brooklyn built it, and paid for
it. The Forth bridge is over a mile and
a-half long; has ON one end yiaduct cor
sisting of ten spans, each l68 feet wide;
ON the other end five spans Of the same
width. Between these is the bridge proper.
This consists of three cantilevers, which
spring from three sets or four huge towers
of tubular steel, reaching 800 feet above
high water mark, and forming three spans,
each LILO feet. Just try and realize that
this bridge has three spans, or arches, each
of which is longer than the far-famed
Brooklyn bridge, and is built on an entire
ly novel plan, aud the vast sum it will cost,
and then you will see what wonderful
enterprise it is, and all this done to expe-
dite travel aud traffic to the north of Scot
land Il is said this bridge will save about
two hours time in railway travel to IDver-
neSs, Aberdeen, Dundee, etc. | have Wis
tied this bridge twice and sailed under it
once and was awe-struck at the immensity
Of the structure 1t Is one Of the sights of
Scotland and thousands of tourists and
Others daily visit it, To give some idea
of the immense size Of the structure, the
head engineer told the Shah of Persia, on
his visit to the Forth bridge, that two
EifTel towers could be put in one cantilever,
the towers lying base to base. Please re-
member, this is not a suspension bridge
the engineers were afraid to build that kind
after the great Tay bridge disaster in 1879.
think, after what has been said, some
of your readers viii believe that there is
some power after all 10 Great Britain, and
if the United States want to get ahead OF
her we must "get up very early in the
morning" and bestir ourselves.-HENRY
TAYLOR