The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-05-19
BRIDGE BUILDING.
Work i'm Mid-Air That Calls for Ex-
tr%aOrdinary Courage and CoOIness.

Cleveland Moffatt, in May st. Nicholas.
As / went time and again TO the great
East-river bridge (the new one whose huge
steel towers were drawing TO full height in
the last months of the century, l found my
self under a growing impression that here
at last was a business with not only danger
i'm it. but fear of danger. Divers and
steeple-climbers had seen who pronounced
their work perfectly safe Though 1 knew
better, and balloonists of the same mind
about perils of the air; there were none,
they declared. although l had a list OF
deaths to prove the contrary. And so on
with others. But here on the bridge were
men who showed by little things (and some
the black-ribhed monster. And il seemed
to me that these were men with the best
kind of grit in them. for although they
were afraid of the bridge they were not
afraid of their fear, and they stuck TO their
job week after week. month after month,
facing the same old peril until-well-
i came upon this fear of the bridge tie
very first time L sought leave to go upon
the unfinished structure. 1t was i'm a little
shanty of an office on the Brooklyn side,
where, after some talk, | suggested TO an
assistant engineer. bent over his plans, that
/ would like to take a picture or two from
the top of the tower. That seemed a SIM
PIE enough thing.
Think you can keep your head UP
there?' said he, with a sharp look.
l told him / had climbed TO a steeDle top.
yes. But you were dashed fast then in
d swing and had a rope to hold on to. Here
you've got to climb up by yourself without
anything to hold on to. and it's twice as
high as the average steeple. The saddles
are $40 feet above the river"
Saddles | queried.
That's what We call 'em. They're beds
Of steel on top of the towers for the cables
to rest on-nice little beds weighing thirty
six .!o tons s ssfd How did YOU Get them
Swing 'em up with steam derricks and
cables. Guess you wouldn't care for that
job. hanging out on one Q, those booms
by your eyelashes." He smiled.
perhaps not" l admitted. But I'd like
to watch it."
He said | must see somebody with more
authority, and turned to his plans. He was
You don't feel in danger yourself. do
YOU" l persisted. when you go up?'
Don't, eh2' he answered. .Well. /
nearly got cut in two the other day 10y a
plate washer. 1t fell over a hundred feet.
and went two inches slam into a piece of
timber l was standing on, Ihen ne eX-
planned what havoc a small piece OF iron
some stray bolt or hammer-can work after
a long drop.
'sThe plate washer" said he, weighed
only two pounds and a half when IL began
10 fall. but II weighed as much as you do
when it strickland you're a fair size
us that true-I mean a statement based
on calculation" said /, "or Is IL a joker"
ITS based on the laws of grayitaticn.'
he answered. land it's no joke for the man
who gets hit. Say. why don't yod go down
i'm the ward and look around a little?"
| old him | would. and presently went
down into the yard. a noisy. confusing
place. where the wind was numming
through a forest OF scaffolding that held
the bare. black roadway skeleton a hun
dred feet overhead. II was a long street
Of iron resting on a long street or wood,
with timber and steel built up In KS on
Ks. the whole rising in an easy slant TO
yonder grim tower tnat loomeu heaNy ana
,iglv aya;ost the sky. a huge bOw-legged III,
with the upper half stretched TO a great
length and each leg piled up with more
KS held by two enormous ones be-
tween Ii looked for all the world as IL
II had come ready made in a box and had
been jolnted together like chiidren.s blocks,
witch Is about the truth. for this great
bridge was finished on paper. then In all
its parts. before ever a beam of 1t saw the
Fast river. As / drew near its feet (Which
could take a row of houses between heel
ard toe) i had the illusion. due TO bigness
and height, that the whole tower was rock