The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-09-25
WHEN THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE FALLS.
The Structure Has Given Plain Warning
That a Terrible Disaster May
Soon Happen.

| travel and traffic: that by wagon or
carriage. foot-passengers, and cable
passenger-cars.
| 1t Is simply a question Of more travel
over a way intended for less. The ele.
waited cars put no dangerous stress up
| on the bridge, not under the demands
for passenger transportation, the troll.
ley-car system, recently added, has
usurped a part of the roadway designed
for teams and introduced two new ele.
ments: first. weight that the bridge
was not expected to bear. and, second
the disorganizlng effect Of the unknown
and dangerous quantity. the electric
current. discharged through a structure
Of steel.
The warning note has been sounded
| by the bridge itself in the sudden but
unmistakable buckling Of girders, ly.
| ing end to end, on Friday, July goth
last. There was a combination Of cir
cumstances fully as likely to occur al
future time-a spell of hot weather,
| by no means the hottest that New
York knows almost every summer;
crowding together upon the bridge OF
passenger laden cars, not one of which
it was ever intended that the structure
should bear. from a cause that might
arise at any hour of the day-and the
crack OF the buckling Orders and a per-
ceptible sagging of the bridge gave no.
| tice OF the beginning OF the end.
It is easy to figure out by formulas
| (Which the unscientific man cannot
controversy that the bridge from its i'm
mense reserve strength can endure the
addc. strain in safety. But this
strength was intended to be main
tained as reserve strength and as alb
solutely necessary to the permanence
Of the bridge Every train, every team,
every oot-passenger that Is sustained
by the part of the bridge supported by
the truss-work, imparts a strain great
or small. which in its degree rear
ranges the molecules Of steel in wires
and rods, and this increased in ratio
by legitimate travel would be enough
of itself to weaken the structure in
time to the point Of falling. The thing
which counteracts this, after first Sc
curing the greatest stability in the
structure so that 1t shall be least
Jared and caused to vibrate, is to
make the parts Of the bridge so much
in excess Of the strength needed i'm
mediately to bear the strain that the
part Of it not affected by the weight,
remaining immovable, shall bring the
disturbed molecules back to their orig
inal position. When this reserve
strength is used to sustain a weight
beyond the power Of the iron to re-
cover itself, the thing is as ruinous as
expanding the principal in a money
fund where the use Of the income only
IL authorized. But in case Of the fall
ing Of the bridge there would be almost
inevitably vast loss Of human life, the
long interruption Of traffic, the sense
Of insecurity in the future, beyond the
loss Of the $16,000,000 expended in its
construction.
1t is not merely the question Of added
weight; it is even more the unequal
distribution of weight that endangers
the Brooklyn Bridge under the pres
ent conditions of traffic. Every morn
ing there Is the enormous pressure the
moving weight Of two car lines with
their loads Of passengers and the
throng of teams and the footmen on the
up-river side Of the bridge. with no
counter-balancing pressure on the 9TH
err side with its empty cars and COM
paratively few teams and footmen. At
the end of the day, during rush
hours" the direction Of travel is re-
versed and the down-river side takes
nearly all the weight. All this repeated
daily brings a racking strain upon the
truss work with the tendency to make
It "shaky," to lessen its tenseness and
! balance.
But the great and more-to-be-d dread
ed danger, because it's extent can only
be known through disaster, is elec-
trolysis, the weakening. the disinte-
grafton Of the steel work through the
action Of electricity. For what this can
| be. take an instance recorded in the
Journal Of the Franklin Institute.
March. 1896. With such a traffic as that
of the trolley line over the Brooklyn
Bridge, it's strange effect on the steel
work Is not hard to see. do not refer
to the disregard paid by the trolley line
to the restriction made of running their
cars 102 feet apart in my forecast Of
danger. but it is an element that all
who know the regard paid by street-car
corporations to city ordinances can APP
preciate.
It is to be expected that the bridge
will stand good while, but il burdens
continue to be put upon 1t 1t will go to
pieces at last. 1t will be a marvel IT.
it gives more warming than 1t already
has done. There will be plenty of So
called experts to pronounce 1t safe and
who will fail to see visible flaw or sign
of danger more than was shown in tho
railrorad bridge at Ashtabula twenty
Ave wears ago, bridge that, originally
built for a certain purpose, was called
ON to sustain a greatly augmented use.
and was pronounced safe until the hor-
ror came. The danger is In the full
kno, edge of the whole city whose peo-
nile built the bridge; the remedy lies in
their hands. Will any one say that the
Roblings. father and son, who planned
and built the structure, If alive, would
countenance the use to which 1t Is put?
The New Workers. have magnificent
property, which already they have be-
gun to squander. a useful servant
which they have begun to overwork.
CLARENCE PULLEN.
downright. 1898, by The International
Literary and News Service.