The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-27
THE GREATEST BRIDGE IN AMERICA.
A Structure That Is Said TO BE Prac-
ticaIIy IndestructfbIe.
Golfers Weekly.

Golfers Weekly.
One Of the greatest deeds ever wrought I'm
stone and steel is the new East river bridge,
formally opened this week. Beside the In
terest and admiration excited by the build
ing OF the first bridge that linked Brooklyn
with Manhattan, this far more imposing cli-
max of engineering genius has passed al
most unnOticed for two reasons.
Weaving these tremendous webs Of steel
over a mile and half OF river and shore,
and swinging the crowded traffic OF the
greatest city Of the land on slender cables
around which a man may clasp his arms.
are no longer a novelty.
$5OO0,O0 tunnel under the Hudson
river; a $35OO0,O00 subway driven the length
of the narrow strip of a city packed to suf-
location; 100000 worth Of new railroad
terminals; one, two three new bridges
costing S1500O,000 each-these arouse only a
furry of interest in New York IL has
time TO turn aside for big things that would
mark epOchs elsewhere.
The new bridge is 40 per cent. wider and
one-siXth longer than the older Brooklyn
bridge, and the traffic capacity is more
than twice as great; or III 300 900 can be
crushed across the old bridge i'm a day.
then nearly twO-thirds of a million Will be
able TO swarm across the greater structure.
Yet the cost Of the new bridge is less by
S50.O00 and the time OF building less by
five years These facts mark the march OF
engineering knowledge and experience in
fifteen years.
The total length OF the new bridge Is 100
feet. mile and Il third OF double-decked
steel rOadways soaring l35 feet above tide
water, nunS rom steel towers 80 1eet nlSn.
-Four trolley tracks, two tracks for elevated
trains, two driveways, two footpaths and a
cycle path are laid IN the lis feet OF width,
three times as wide as cross street OF
New York. Twenty thousand tons of dead
weight pun at the granite anchorages be-
fore a car OF passenger crosses. compared
with the 1900 tons of material striving TO
pull the older Brooklyn bridge up by the
roots.
Experts say that no possible strain can
break down the bridge, and that when the
old Brooklyn bridge has crumbled away and
nothing is left but the granite towers. the
new bridge will be- open for business" Skel-
eton steel towers are substituted for the
granite monuments at the ends Of the other
bridge. a seeming paradox when the Penn
sylvania Railroad is spending millions TO
replace steel bridges by solid stone 10
make a more permanent way. Much added
strength is in the four cables. which are
eighteen and a quarter inches in diameter.
against fifteen and three-quarters for the
first bridge. The difference is slight TO lock-
1 steel jacketing which hides the most wonder
full and delicate achievement in all bridge
| construction. Each OF these four cables Is
made Of 1896 separate wires each wire
while one hundred and forty men spun the
huge steel rope. This daring band OF work.
men bound tWcnty-siX tons OF steel wires
! into this cable web each day each wire
thirty-five hundred feet long. and only
| three-siNtenths Of an inch in diameter
Five thousand tons Of steel were fashioned
/ thus into four cables the thickness OF a
stout tree, and the strength OF each little
wire. tested beforehand, became part OF q
mighty harmony OF effort. all pulling to-
| gether. yet the power 20 bear fits gigantic
/ burden no more than the united en-
1 deavOrs OF thirty thousand picture wires. .
The four cables cost sL4oo~a