Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-12
Four Mighty Cables Are
Hung for the New Bridge.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
THE GREAT ROADWAY HAS GI-
GANTIc PROPORTIONS.
Structure Will Weigh About 10000
Tons and Can Garry Six
Times That.

Times That.
| Written for The Evening Star
Never in the history of bridge building
have giant cables been hung so swiftly as
they were on New York's new suspen-
sion bridge over the East river. Seven
months ago the first strand of wire for
them was still undrawn. Today the four
| mighty cables are finished and the work
of hanging the suspender cables from them
is well under way. Those four cables con-
tain 1876 wires, each 5000 feet long, max
ing 4.429 miles of wire. And the seven
months occupied in the work is exactly
three times as fast as any similar work
has ever been accomplished.
Through all those months men saw the
work grow apparently so slowly that their
senses became blunted, and they did not
realize what cyclopean labor was being
performed before their eyes. Every day
they saw innumerable tiny black specks
plodding to and fro on in tangle of wire
ropes that looked like fairy threads from
below. No serious accidents, not a single
interruption of the vast traffic of the roar
ing strait that is called East river, not
sound that could be heard, marked the
work. Yet those black atoms. looking
more like insects than men from below,
threw $500 tons of cable through the air in
that time.
So high in air hang those great ropes
of iron, so airy and lovely in outline are
those vast towers, that no man gazing
upward from river or shore can realize the
monstrous dimensions of everything con-
nected with that giant swing. Somehow,
despite the fact that all about it is so
motionless and still, the sight of those
beautifully true and perfectly sweeping
cables gives one an impression as If he
were looking at the swoop of a bird sud-
denly fixed miraculously in midair in all
Its grace. Standing deep in the rushing
green water, the two steel towers stand
sturdy and powerful, like men at arms in
metal harness. From every aspect one
sees the blue sky shine through their open
srnlage work, softening their mighty
trusses and girders and making them look,
not as If they were dead tons of weight,
but as If they might be swayed by the
lightest airs.
Overwhelming Proportions.
1t is only when one is high on the struc-
ture itself and can look downward from
the towers that the true proportions Of
the great roadway become apparent But
then they become apparent overwhelm-
ingly.
Your correspondent was fortunate enough
to receive invitation from Assistant
Chief Engineer Hildenbrandt to accom-
pany him over the entire structure just
before the dizzy foot bridges that had been
swung for the work of cable laying were
torn away, and thus we were possibly the
last party to cross under conditions fitted
exceptionally to bring out the stupendous
sizes of everything connected with the
work.
Beginning the Climb.
We began our climb at the Brooklyn an
chorage just as the last wire was being
brought across by the busy wheel that has
carried all those miles of it without an
error a break. The work Of carving
the wires over was simplicity itself, as in
deed is almost everything connected with
the building Of the bridge. On each shore
of the river was a reel of wire. This was
hitched into groove in the wheel, as
belt is put around flywheel. Then the
wheel was pulled over to the other side
with wire cable, revolving all the way
and paying out the wire strand that 1t car
ried At the other side another wire was
harnessed to it, and it was sent back. So
1t travelled to and fro day after day. LAYING
the wires precisely where they were wanted
At intervals of a few yards men with tongs
and pliers stood ready to seize the wire as
1t was delivered, lay it in place and tie it to
the rest with stout steel bands.
The anchorage, a pile of granite looks
more like busy ship yard than an edifice
Of the land. Diving into subterranean cav
erns beneath the tons of stone are great
fifteen-foot links-link bolted to link with
bolts as thick as mans arm. This i'm
mense chain of tempered steel, held in place
by the superintendent mass of rock
vertable anchor, only one of enormous size
holds the cables proper, which themselves
cease some distance away from the anchor
Their connection with the chain is made by
simply passing the endless strands of wire
around the outer links.
The individual wires in the cable are not
DIS thick as lead pencil But out of them
!. have been spun cables that are nineteen
inches in diameter.
Although the anchorage itself rises high
over surrounding buildings the senses re-
fuse to give the impression Of height, for
just ahead there springs the vast tower
over which the cables are hung. Up. up,
rising to its top with swing so abrupt and
great that one feels as If they were actually
climbing visibly before one, go the four
great cables. To climb up the tiny foot
bridge, slippery with months of oil drip
pings (for every wire that went across the
bridge passed through an oil bath before it
started), seemed quite impossible of
achievement "A most ridiculpusly made
quate thing to carry Caesar and his for
tunes" said visiting engineer. who was
one of the party, as he balanced on the
narrow planks and looked through the wide
spaces at his feet down into the street far
below.
Half way up the ascent to the tower top
the climb became a scramble. MolaSseS-
like masses Of oil made the feet slip-and
one does not enjoy slipping when the near
est place to land is 80 feet below. Grip
ping the oily guy rope, the only means of
support, We climbed and climbed. with the
threatening mass Of the cable hanging just
over our heads.
On the Towers Top.
At last we emerged and stood on tiny
landing place before the tower. A dive
through an opening that seemed to lead
straight into the sky. and we had gained
the top of the Brooklyn tower-332 feet
above high water, higher by twenty-four
feet than the gigantic st. Paul building,
and seeming as high a snow-capped
mountain to us as we stood on the I'M
fenced, unguarded summit, with all New
York, Long Island, the Sound, the rivers
and the bay at our feet like a neat map.
And now look forward and backward,
and behold the vast work that this little
creature, man, has done. Human hands,
not as big by many inches as any one of
hundreds of rivets around US, have hurled
this mass of iron and steel across an arm
of sea. Before these tiny two-legged an
imals that are hanging like flies to dizzy