New-York tribune., 1901-10-07
FRIDGE KEEPERS SLEPT
pEpORT SHOWS AMPLE EVI-
DENCES OF NEGLECT.
-uo RODS HAD LONG BEEN BROKEN
REPAIRS MADE IT SAFE FOR
PRESENT.

hea-
esnupervision and inspection but that at present.
ssfause Of repairs important deterioration
eYsts and that the structure is practically
e-rnng now when completed
lis safety, however, Que to increases in the
-,oving loads, IS less than when the bridge
nmnIeted and because of defects in the design
has never been so great was supposed md is
now much below the degree considered good
nractice for ordinary bridges. If the improve
rsent of stay system is made. that the dead
weight of bridge may be safely increased most
NJ the defects found be easily remedied.
while we have made no plans estimates and
the statement is merely a guess we think that
the entire improvement can be made at a cost of
from $500 600 TO S750000 and within less than
,hree wears time The necessary calculations
Gre very intricate and difficult, and it might
lake ali of the first year TO make the survey of
the structure, finish the computations and COM
plete the plans.
Thus Edwin Duryea jr.. and Joseph Mayer
who were appointed by District Attorney Phil
bin to make an examination of the condition of
the Brooklyn Bridge. briefly sum up their find
ings on the subject in their report made to the
District Attorney some time ago. and by him
made public yesterday The report was sub
nitted by Mr. Duryea 10 Alfred Noble. now a
member of the Isthmian Canal Commission and
formerly member of the Deep Waterways
Commission and of the Nicaragua Canal Com
mission of 1895. Mr. Noble carefully examined
the report and made certain suggestions which
Mr. Duryea followed.
NilllGm barclay PARSONS, Cnlef engineer OF the
Rapid Transit Commission, also recently exam
ined the report at the request of the District At
torney. and said that ii showed the bridge was
perfectly safe, and could be so strengthened as
to bear great deal more traffic.
TWO RODS LONG BROKEN
Messrs Duryea and Mayer in referring to the
accident of July "a. when nine consecutive sus-
penders Of the bridge were broken, say that two
and that examination of the suspender rods
showed that they must have been subjected to
side bending. In answering the question as to
what agency causes this bending, they say they
Of the opinion that the most important cause
is wind pressure. AT least two other causes of
side bending act in conjunction with the wind
pressure An examination of the new rods
shows that they being pulled to the north
by the cable and bearing hard against the
top edges Of their trunnions. They think this
must be due TO some defect of adjustment or
construction by which the rods fail TO lie in the
plane Of the cable the trunnions fail to be
perpendicular to this plane. On this point they
further say:
The remaining cause Of side bending is the only
one a ne S Whole design Ct the suspender rods
reneoied by mere careful supervision: The rods
and the trunnions show evidence of Iubrication
Ihe one removed and taken apart for examination
Int p8dbtS DS rust dnC paint,
and must certainly have caused bending of the rod
N The he bresins a1FsUn Of q the lhe Drlege
@ aeg ge o to 5he two % rods @ broken frs! having been
to inefficient supervision and inspection.
In dealing with the subject Of the safety or
the bridge they say their examination shows
that while the moving loads now on the bridge
are about 4o per cent in excess of those proposed
ny the designer, his preliminary estimate of the
probable weight of the structure itself was SO
much larger than its present actual weight that
the combined weight of the structure and
moving load is now less than 3 per cent in ex-
cess Of that assumed by him in 1882.
EVIDENCES OF NEGLECT.
In speaking about the MANAGEMENT they saw
that statements to the safety of the bridge
have been issued without obtaining. by use of
all available knowledge. the real stresses in the
structure, and that without knowledge of
these stresses all such statements are unwar-
ranted- They found that many diagonal bars
and sway rods of the stifening trusses had been
allowed TO wear by rubbing against each other:
many suspender ropes to wear by rubbing
against the floor Of the promenade. This, in their
opinion. could easily have been prevented
Water and mud had been allowed to collect and
remain in portions OF the bottom chords and
road sweepings in the bottom Of the floor beams
around the suspender stirrups. The saddles sup
porting the cables tops of towers are now
hXed They were intended by their designers
TO be movable No signs that efforts were made
to keep them movable We're found, but. instead
ridges OF rust paint and dirt appeared on the
bedpates along the outer rollers
The presence Of two undiscovered broken sIs-
psnders in the structure on July "a proves. they
tnink that the inspection of the bridge must
have been either very infrequent or merely NOM
1lQC f,-
broken rod, or even unbroken one, having
very little stress in ii. could be detected with
out difficulty by fits sound under hammer blows.
They say this was recognized by officials of the
Bridge Department because, soon after the acc-
cent, all the remaining rods OF the. north cable
at the centre Of the main span were so tested
ny them But this hammer test was only ap-
piled 10 few of the rods on the other cables,
though many of these rods were just as liable to
failure as those which actually did fail at the
northernmost cable. merely visual inspection
without the use of the hammer would be also
sufficient to show the breakage of a suspender
rod They of the opinion that the method
Of inspection IN vogue the bridge is at direct
variance with the methods in general on
good American railroads. II seems to them 70
have been done entirely by mechanics at no
stated times, and with record sheets returned
70 the Office guarantee that the inspection
mad been actually made They also found in
studying the method of inspection that no ex-
act records have been kept of the condition OF
the structure. and that complete and correc,
set Of drawings exists.
NO EVIDENCE OF ELECTROLYSIS.
Touching on the physical deterioration they ex
press opinion that material loss OF
strength in this respect has occurred in the
bridge. There is evidence that eectrolysis
one instance had the wheel loads on the bridge