Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1893-01-05
AN ENDLESS JOB.
THE PAINTING OF BROOKLYN
BRIDGE GOES on FOR
EVER.

IL Takes six Years TO Make the Vast
Structures Toilet-Agliity and Oar
Ing OF the Painters.
There are very few tasks the accom-
plishlnent OF which is at all possible that
man cannot, in these days, set his brain
and hand TO and finish.
One OF these few is before MS here In
New York. 1t is work that has been
going on steadily for years and Is no
nearer being finished than 1t was when It
was begun. Yet, paradoxical though 1t
may seem, it is as near being finished cs
il ever will be, though the work will go
on steadily as it has in the past
This task is none other than that oil
painting the New York and Brooklyn |
bridge.
You probably have at some time
watched with wonder and even awe the
men who, swinging with the wind, seated
on narrow strips of boards at q height OF
from $50 to $40 feet above the river,
WELD their paint brushes as calmly MS
though they were standing on solid
ground.
Or YOU NAV have noticed the same men
climbing here and there on the wire work
like so many spiders in gigantic web,
| or have breathlessly looked on while they
were running up and down the great
cables as though it were some garden
path. And you have doubtless wondered
what sort of men these were and what
sort of hearts they possessed, or nerves,
if any.
| Yet if you expressed such thoughts to
Foreman Con O'Leary or any OF his gang
of painters, they would laugh at you and
tell YOU that they are in no danger at all.
And indeed the facts in the case seem TO
Justify this assertion. But one painter
has ever fallen from the bridge since 1t
was opened. He was working on the
Brooklyn side, painting some OF the grid
ers and lost his hold. He fell into the
river beneath. He was picked up by
tug apparently uninjured.
Looking at the bridge from little
distance the wires that hang from the
big cables look so thin and delicate that
one is deceived about them. Not so with
the painter. He knows that those small
cables are not so small after all. They
are made up of many twisted wires that
eat up vast quantities of paint. The small
appearing girders, too, present vast sur
face in the aggregate to the painter 5
brush. while. as for the big cables, from
which the big structure is suspended,
they eat up hundreds of tons OF white
lead and thousands of gallons of oil each
wear, not to speak of the brushes they
wear out.
The work of painting the bridge is
endless. This is because its managers
have never attempted to have it painted
as a single Job. To do it in any short
period would simply require an army OF
; men. and sufficient men of the right sor1
could not be got for any sort OF wages
So. instead, small body OF experts are
employed and they paint the bridge b!
sections. Sometimes you will see gans
, of painters at work on the iron termina
buildings in New York or Brooklyn
, They can do this work when it is no
: convenient to be out on the open struc
! ture.
Then again the men will for weeks, 0
, even months. be at work out Of the sigh
of pedestrians on the girders under TN
} promenade and roadway. Then you wi
, see them on the side rails of the promer
= ade and roadways. Later they will
1 several feet up in the air painting tn
big cables, and yet again you may OF
N | serve Incn UP uhu NN"h eA~ 49,
A penders that hang from the cables.
: To give the whole structure two Goa
2 in this way takes in the neighborhood
], six years, and Mt the end oil that time
! is necessary to start all over again. re
= that matter all the destructlble mater
= of the bridge has co be renewed In u
y same manner. The promenade and roa'
- WAYS cannot be made new at sing
y lob. To do so would necessltate n
y. closing of the bridge good part of Il
:. - time. So they are merely renewed fro
70 time to time as they show signs of wea
- ness and are never wholly old or Who'll
10 new.
40 The painters work in two gangs. D
gang goes ahead and scrapes and clea
= the wires. They have files and hoo
- and they scrape and dig away the 0
~ lead and paint that is imbcdded IN u
conyulitions of the steel wire strands an
y then they clean these strands with ste,
.u bristled brushes, leaving all ready !
- the fresh paint. This is applied 10y Il
~, second gang, who then come along.
rs These bridge painters are nearly all 9
~ sailor men, and nothing pleases TIT
=: more at times than to raise the hair
10 the heads of the crowd beneath by sol
gratuitous act of apparent recklessnes
They must be well paid, you may 81
for such hard and risky work. W.
that depends upon what the proper Int
probation of high wages is. The Jo'
!. iarly inclined might be impelled to
a &c. that in the case of the painters on
-; ;ts big bridge that their work is much higl
AZ ,sS than their pay. These painters get o
an g.. so per day, but they work the
~, round. and most of the men seem sa
' 'o5 fed with their lot.-lNew York News