New-York tribune., 1903-07-10
ATTACKS EYE-BAR PLAN,
WHheIm Hddenbrand Calls Linden
that's Scheme Tasteful.

To a Tribune reporter who asked him for his
opinion in regard to Commissioner LindenthaIs eye
bar cable plan for the Manhattan Bridge. Wilhelm
Hildenbrand. engineer of cables for the Wliliams-
burg Bridge, said yesterday:
The five experts appointed by Mayor Low 70 E eHo
Smine the Bridge Commisslo99erS pan lot orts rne
March Il, 1893 is this: 1t is possible to build a
class of steel can be manufactured. me substance
ment that such steel can be made at a reasonable
This is all. There are no calculations TO show
the strength and cost Of the Manhattan bridge
compared with that of the other East River bridges,
and there spirited arguments to show why
the eye-bar cable should be preferred TO the more
trarv: the exrerts do not even assert that eye
bars can be made which would have the required
ebaTs Us at least 29 per cent less than that of
shall tss S iece Tberefore the expeTts only say
that eye-bars having the specified qualities would
@e ess s9 fsr made Would % ndicae that the de-
sired results can be obtained lee NTH Wtn T sT9e f oef
ter is about uncertain as it was five months ago!
bar cables as well the interests OF the taxpayers,
are laid. ought to know all these facts and to pay
the Bridge Commissioner. himself. cOrrobOrates the
bar chan pians viii cost more than the
wire cable plan by asking an aggregate sum OF
bridge from anchorage to anchorage The Will
amsburg bridge which mas r9e SAN same - Tan m d0o GT6 fro
anchorage to anchorage. including real estate dam
prove by calculations and figures the extrayagance
of Mr.. Lindenthals designs! VIII the aldermen
waste the peoples money merely to crafty a whim
of the Commissioner of Bridges?
1t has been stated in some papers that the Tam
many members of the Board of Aldermen intended
for political to defeat the appropriation of
Sc 10000 asked for. Whatever the reasons of the
Tammany Aldermen are, they certainly right,
and If they succeed in their purpose of saving to
the taxpayers many millions of dollars they de-
serve the thanks of every citizen Therefore, also
political reasons, the merit of such action
should be permitted to go to Tammany alone.
Let all Republican and fusionist alderman join
their votes with Tammany, and the merit will be
distributed among all parties. On the other hand.
if Tammany should be left alone and not succeed
in defeating the appropriation the odium of having
squandered the peoples money will alone
the Republicans and fuSiOniStS.
Looking at the matter from the standpoint of
common sense. there is absolutely why
any alderman should support the eyebar cable. He
is certain that he saves money thereby, but, If
anything will lose of the peoples money millions
of dollars; he Is not certain that the bridge be
built in BILE time the eyebar plan, while
he knows all about the wire cables. He is also
absolutely certain that by rejecting the appro-
prtauon no delay will occur. The Bridge Commits
siOner has confessed and boasted that he does not
need the aldermen. he has fund OF s. 900 900 to
or with the work Let him do and let the
aldermen have time to consider the appropriation
again after the eyebar and wire cable question
has been settled by the technical experts. While
each alderman runs the risk of making a big mis-
take by voting for the appropriation, he can alb
solutely make no mistake by voting against it.