The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-11-13
SATuRl'AG,U NOVEMBER 10, 1897
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
Ra211 Transit on Brooklyn Bridge - A
Marvellous Engineering Feat.
Clever Work by Convicts.
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
New Workers are no different from
the people of other large cities. They
must have something to kick about.
For many years the facilities, or rather
lack Of facilities, for transporting pas
tengers over the Brooklyn bridge formed
Il fruitful topic for the complaints of
lrowlers, who seemed to ignore the fact
that traffic over that structure had in
creased SO rapidly that it was unreason-
Ible to expect that the accommodations
would not fall behind the demand for a
short time at least. At last, after stand
ing the growls for as long a time as
they could. the bridge commissioners
determined to inaugurate q cable car
system on the bridge that would re-
spond to any demands made upon it.
To do this. however, radical alterations
were necessary. The old steel stations
on both sides Of the river must be torn
down and replaced by higher and larger
ones. This was done. New stations
hundreds Of feet long were built up in
place of the old ones, and yet. despite
the apparent impossibility of the task,
all this was accomplished without in
terfering with the enormous daily
traffic.
Passengers to and from Brooklyn
stumbled rel SAWS, planes and all sorts
of tools for a few months, and the air
was blue with the ~imprecations, many
Of which were suggested by the news
papers, whose supposed funny men could
zee nothing serious in the stupendous
engineering feat which al being &c
complished. Finally it was done, and
the commissioners went a step further
by dispensing with the annoying little
switching engines and equipping the
end cars Of each train with an electric
motor. so that the trains were self shift
ing from one to another of the four
tracks which had been provided.
A New Chance to Kick.
A third rail was put down in each
roadbcd, so that the trains could be IL
by electricity whenever necessary, and
in addition to all this an extra cable
was kept running. SO that in case of a
break there would be no such thing as
the old nuisance of being stalled in the
middle of the bridge. The croakers were
silenced. There may be better transpor-
tation facilities somewhere on the face
of this globe, but those who are famll-
lar with such matters have not heard OF
it, and they are on the lookout for just
such information too. There Is always,
or very nearly always, a seat for a pas
senger, and even those who are crowded
out of one train have only to wait about
half a minute for another. The croak-
ers were for a time nonplused, but
they did not have long to wait, for the
deal was soon made whereby the elevat-
ed and trolley lines of Brooklyn are
permitted to run their cars over the
bridge. That of itself was bad enough,
for there is none too much room there
now, and every one knows that the re-
suit will only be delay In getting across
the river. but a little later the an
nouncement was made that the trolley
neople would he allowed to run their
cars down to the street level on this
side. That was the cut for the croakers
to begin their wall. But this time they
have almost everybody except the troll
lev officials in sympathy with them,
Clever Work by Convicts.
The .'prison exhibition" recently
held in this city was n most unique sort
of affair, and to persons Of a semimorbld
turn of mind it was not without Its IN
teresting side.
Every visitor to the exhibition was
privileged to BIO measured by the Bertll-
lon system, and the cards in such cases
were given him.
Among tho ''curios' were the electric
chair from Sing sing, woodwork by
convicts in New York state prisons a
model of the Eastern penltentiary ai
Philadelphia, the plan OF when mas
been adopted i'll England, and a Jap
anese prison exhibit showing the hioues
of punishment i'll vogue in the flo"ery
Kingdom 20 years ago aud modern I'LL
proyemonts thereon,
There were prison locks II Keys
without end, many of them with inter
estinc histories. There was q mooei "a