The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-11

of the present bridge as about the limit
in the line of aerial thoroughfares have
a surprise in store for them when TINS
splendid new highway is thrown open
for traffic There are five roads In all
over the present bridge-two driveWays
which now carry the tracks of the sur
face railways; two regular railroad
tracks and a footpath way, or prone
made. The new bridge will have
twelve highways, all gathered IN q
great bunch and hung at a height OF
one hundred and fifteen feet above the
waters of East river. There VIII be ac-
commodations for four surface ROAD
tracks. two tracks for elevated rail-
road trains, two roadways for vehicles,
two footpaths for pedestrians, and two
bicycle paths The present bridge mas
width of eighty-fve feet the new
bridge will be one hundred and eighteen
feet wide.
If the immense traffic of the present
bridge is borne in mind some vague
idea may be formed of the immense
number of people who will pass to and
fro over the new structure between the
two boroughs Even before the sur
face road tracks were put across the
present bridge the number of people
carried in single year bv the bridge
cars exceeded 44,50O,Oo0. The capacity
of the new bridge with it's four sur
face road tracks will be easily double
that figure, to say nothing of the two
elevated railroad tracks which cores
pond to the two railroad tracks on the
old bridge that carried the 44,5OO,oo0
passengers year as far back as 1895.
Then there are the two driveWays to be
taken into account together with the
two cycle paths and the two footways
Whether the new bridge will be as
handsome as the old one remains to be
seen. The architectural critics had a
good deal to say Just after the old
bridge was finished, and what they
said was not by any means all favora-
BILE, It is reasonable to suppose that
they will be heard from again when
the new bridge Is completed with COM
ments on the aesthetic possibilities of
structural steel as compared with ma
sorry for the bridge towers. In princi-
ple--the suspension principle-the two
bridges are the same with some trifing
ilDhlllNctlIliS. Il VI LIE al OlS dC-
tail the cables will be different, and
that is in the matter of covering. In
the case of the old bridge the cables
are covered with wire wrapped and
wound over them. This makes 1t i'm
possible to get al the cables to see how
they are bearing the strain without
cutting away the wire wrappings.
In the case of the new bridge the COW
erings will be steel plates connecting
the steel bands which at short inter-
walls will clasp the gathered strands Of
the cable. These plates will be removal
Bile and it will be possible to take them
off and examine the cables at any point.
Not. however that it is apprehended
that the cables will be a danger point.
Experience with other bridges has
shown that practically they are indie
structible when properly protected and
will retain their original strength after
other parts Of the structure are worn
out, There was a striking instance of
this wonderful vitality of cables in the
case of the old suspension bridge at Nj
agara Falls, which was torn down af-
ter an existence of something over for
ty years to make way for the new
uTluSt llldl SPANS the ctlHSn1 Tfere.
The cables We're cut UP and sold for old
junk, and when sections of them were
freed from their wrappings they were
found to be as bright and fresh as the
day they were put in place. Further
than that. when they We're released
they had a tendency to curl back into
the loops In which they We're coied be-
fore they were strung across the river
In other words. the forty years Of
strain they had been under had not
even taken the kinks out of them.
1t is bewildering to speculate upon
what the opening of this great artery
will mean to the growth of Brooklyn
and it Is equally bewidering to picture
the splendid transformation that in the
end is sure to be wrought in the vicini-
ty of the New York terminus of the
structure. Already real estate values
in both boroughs in the vicinity of the
proposed ends of the bridge have taken
a start upward and as the time Dire VS.
near for the completion Of the work
they undoubtedly will soar higher and
higher. Then the invarion of Brook
lyn by the homeseekers will get another
mighty impetus which will push the