The Washington times., 1902-01-05
ON SLENDER WIRE
HIGH UP IN AIR.
PerilOuS Jobs of Men Employed on
the East River Bridge.
TRAINED SPECIALLY FOR 1T.
little support for Them When Rt
WOri>-Nust sway Back and Forth
to Keep Their Bnlancc--FairIJ
Good Wind Their best Friend.

Not all the slack wire walkers are en-
| gagged in the circuses. Within few weeks
| the builders of the new East River bridge
will have work for arother twenty-five
men who can walk the slack wires. and
there viii be abundance OF work for them
for some little time.
| The men will be required to walk in
gangs of twenty five, so that any0nc who
| wants to see THE largest single aggrega =
tion of slack-wire walkers ever perform
ing at one time should keep an eye on
| the new bridge.
Perhaps ii would be we'll to explain that
the twenty-five slack-wire walkers who
may be REQUIRED by the builders of the
Fast River bridge are not expected 10 give
thrilling performance. They will be ex-
pected to work, and there will be a pain
fui lack Of spectacular features about
the task. They Will be needed TO "tread''
the wire, as the operation of straigiiteil-
ing and disentangling the cable wires is
called. but none the less they will be
legitimate performers on the slack wire.
Stretching the Wires.
tp-rt the top of the big new bridge men
are now busily at work stretching the
single wires which later on will be bound
together to form the great cables which
are 10 support the bridge structure. Two
wires are stretched at time by ma
chine which is hauled back and forth
across the East River. and each day the
embryo cables grow bigger and bigger.
1t may seem 20 be q very simple mat
ter to stretch wires from one side of a
river TO the other but as a matter of
TACT, it is one of the most troublesome
and intricate details of the work
Each one OF the single wires is O165 of
an inch in diameter and POI OF these sin
gle wires are stretched across the river
before they are bound together to form
one OF the nineteen parts of which each
OF the great cables is to be constructed.
In others words. nineteen cables are made
on each side of the bridge and then each
group of nineteen is bound together to
form single length for one OF the big
cables.
Every time one-ef the nineteen strands
is completed the slack-wIre walkers are
called into service to arrange the wires
Everything possible is done to keep the
"lrss at the same temperature, but each
one OF the long strands is as sensitive as
thermometer 10 changes of temperature
and the consequence is that the wires
'snarl up" and get twisted into the most
astonishing combinations.
Slow work of Trcading.
Into this mass of wire the twenty-five
slack-wire walkers lower themselves,
and, holding on tight by hand cables that
are specially provided for them, they
sections until the part they are working
on lies smooth. When this occurs the
small cable is quickly bound around so
as to prevent il from twisting again. ana
then the wire walkers" pass along TO
the next section.
The work cf -treading out" the mass of
wire is very lab0rious, slow and primi-
tive. but the engineers say that it is still
the cnly 'sy in which the work can be
done satisfactorily.
When each CT the nineteen cables has
been ''trodden out and bound up safely.
each must be lifted. one after the other,
into The saddles ON the top of the towers.
The end OF each individual wire has to be
fastened to u pin before it is stretched,
and then all these 29l pins on the ends
of the wires have to be gathered to-
gether and made fast 10 the anrhorages
on each side OF the river.
When this has been done $3.50 times,
the resulting cables are fastened nine
teen times more. and then each big cable
is ready to be wound" This is done
by gathering together the nineteen thick
wire cables and winding them around
and around with wire, in the same way
that sailor 'seiZes" a rope-or in the
same way in which thread is wound upon
spool.