The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-27

l From the New York Times.
 The great Forth bridge in Scotland, with its two spans of ITO feet in length each. heretofore has possessed the long, est single span Of any bridge in the world. This distinction now crosses the Atlantic to Canada, where two bridges, one in process of construction over the 1 St Lawrence, about six miles below Quebeck. and the other to be built across the Strait of canso, between Cape Ere ton and the mainland of Nova Scotia, will each have a clear single span of 1S0C feet and clear headway above high water of 150 feet. The span of the Brook lyn bridge is 1895 feet and it's height above high water 195 feet, and the new East river bridge spans 5 feet more and is at it's highest point 1S5 feet above high water.
 The bridge over the St. Lawrence. now partly completed, crosses part of the river which varies from 1900 feet to 250O feet in width. and is about 1sO feet deep. The total length of the bridge will be SsoO feet. and it will carry two railroad U aNhof ei tAGtNAAt llblbI lIdIA dilu d highway for vehicles.
 The great bridge over the Strait of Canso, for the construction of which a company has been formed, a charter ob- tained and plans drawn, will be one of the finest in the world. It is the solution of the transportation problem which has arisen out of the recent remarkable de- velopment of Cape Breton, following the opening of the coal mines and the estab- lishment of the immense steel plants at Sydney. Up to within three years ago the ferry service, by which the cars were taken across the strait on float, was found to be sufficient When the sudden ly increased volume of traffic rendered | that primitive method inadequate. the Canadian government substituted an iron steamer with carrying capacity of nine teen cars. The inadequacy of that serv- ice also was made apparent the following winter, when the Ice gorges, which blocked the strait, sometimes for days. made that or any other ferry service an impossibilty The steamer, too, under the most favorable conditions, cannot handle expeditiously more than half the traffic, which Is constantly and rapidly increasing. As this service cost Canada s1,o0O,0OO to establish and costs s120o0O a year to maintain. the government has in- dicated it's willingness to grant a sub stantial subsidy to any company under taking the construction of a bridge
 Including J. A. L. Waddell of Kansas City, graduate of McGin and for time professor of civil engineering at the Uni versity in Tokio where for his services he was knighted by the emperor of Japan, a number of experienced engineers made surveys. When the feasibility of the project was demonstrated a company was formed The bridge will be of the arched cantilever type, and will be con structed with the view not only to ac- commodate the coal and steel traffic of Cape Breton, but also to provide for the i passenger traffic incident upon the possi- ble selection of Sydney which has a splendid harbor, and which is also the most easterly port of Canada, as a win ter terminal for the proposed fast Cana dian transatlantic steamship line.
 The Conso Strait is a deep channel about twenty miles long and from half a mile to a mile and a half wide. The new bridge will span 1t between Port Hastings on the Cape Breton side and Cape Porcupine on the Nova Scotia shore, distance of 2SOO feet. On account of the