The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-13
NEBROOKLYN TERMINAL
ESHolvjNC THE CASH CUT !
INTO THE CITY. A

nigh over surrounding buildings, the
senses refuse to give the impressi. n Of
height, for just ahead there springs
the vast tower over which the cables
are hung. Up, up, rising to it's top
with a swing SO abrupt and great that
one feels as if they We're actually
climbing visibly before one, go the four
great cables. To climb up the tiny
footbridge, slippery with months of oil
drippings (for every wire that went
across the bridge passed through an
oil bath before it started), seemed
quite impossible of achievement. "A
most ridiculously inadequate thing to
carry Caesar and his fortunes" 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.
Halfway up the ascent to the tower
top the climb became scramble. Mo-
lasses-like masses of oil made the feet
snp-and one does not enjoy, slipping
when the nearest place to land is one
hundred and fifty feet below. Gripping
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
70 lead straight into the sky, and we
mad gained the top of the BROOKLYN
toWer-S32 feet above high water.
higher by "a feet than the gigantic ST
Paul building, and seeming as high as
snow-capped mountain to us as we
stood on the unfenced, unguarded sum-
mlt' with all New York, Long Island.
the sound, the rivers and the bav at
our feet like a neat map.
And now look forward and hoo,-
ward and behold the vast work that
niue creature, man, has done. Hin
man hands, not as big by manv inobes
as any one of hundreds of rivats
around us, have hurled this mass Of
iron and steel across an arm of 90.
before these tiny two-legged animals
1hat are hanging like flies to dizzv
places all around us are through thew
VIII have hung $4,000 tons to these ca :
bles that they have spun.
Inc engineer is saying that tbe To-
tai weight of the bridge when cononle+
eu VIII be 5000 tons with the live load
that 1t is designed to carry. But he
says that will be play for the cables
Tor their total strength is expressed IN
$4,000 tons. 1850 - =
Nlnety-six thousand times ninatv-
SIX thousand tons seems child's NAV n
US gazing down at them as they SWEEP
l III lour glorious masses down and ia,
, out over the river and then up again
, seeming to dart straight at the sl,v as
, they reach bravely for the top of the
New York tower. Four torrents n
metal, spouting out from steel ennbras 6.
ures! If architecture is frozen music
> here' In this engineering feat, is Wag.
merriam opera transformed at the mo.
= ment OF its widest revelry into rigif
. steel. That giant swing, caught il
It's upward sweep, might, indeed. b,
the thunder itself, caught and transfix.
u ed to hang there, visible forever.
Hundreds of wire ropes hang every
where Footbridges, planks, rope lad
. ders' tackle, make a tangle around us
But as well might one expect the ey,
to note fly when looking at Mag
t ara as to see anything here excep
c those noble spans, hanging serene an,
e beautiful, high over the city's smok,
atmosphere.
e Hung by such as This spare, shy
II smiling man who is leading us across
Il Now he is pointing downward Ad
vancing to the edge of the tower, wher
IS it drops sheer into the deep water s.