Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-01-12
The Greatest Bridge in America.

The Greatest Bridge In America.
One of the greatest deeds ever wrought
in stone and steel is the new East River
Bridge, formally opened this week. Be.
side the interest and admiration excited
by the building of the first bridge that
linked Brooklyn with Manhattan, this
far more imposing climax of engineering
genius has passed almost 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 slen-
der cables around which man may
clasp his arms, are no longer novelty.
A fifty million dollar tunnel under the
Hudson River, thirty-five million dol
lar subway driven the length Of the mar
row strip of city packed to suffocation;
fifty million dollars worth of new rail-
way terminals; one, two or three new
bridges costing fifteen millions each
these arouse only a furry Of interest in
New York. 1t has no time to turn aside
for big things that would mark epochs
elsewhere.
The new bridge is forty per cent wider
and one.sixth longer than the older
Brooklyn Bridge, and the traffic capac-
ity is more than twice as great; or II
800, 900 can be crushed across the old
bridge in 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 50, 500, 900, and
the time of building less by five years.
These facts mark the march of engineer
ing knowledge and experience in fif-
teen years.
The total length of the new bridge is
1900 feet, mile and third of double
decked steel roadways soaring one-hun-
dred and thirty-five feet above tidewater,
hung from steel towers three hundred
aad thirty-five feet high. Four trolley
tracks, Two tracks for elevated trains,
two driveways, two footpaths, and
cycle path are laid in the one hundred
and eighteen feet of width, three times
as wide as cross-street of New York.
Twenty thousand tons of dead weight
pull at the granite anchorages before a
car or passenger crosses, compared with
the fifteen thousand 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 still be open
for business" Skeleton steel towers are
substituted for the granite monuments
at the ends of the other bridge, seem
ing paradox when the Pennsylvania Rail.
road is spending millions to replace steel
bridges by solid stone to make more
permanent way. Much added strength
is in the four cables, which are eighteen
and quarter inches in diameter, against
fifteen and three-quarters for the first
bridge. The difference is slight to look
at, but impressive when seen beneath the
steel iacketing which hides the most
wonderful and delicate achievement in
all bridge construction. Each OF these
four cables is made of 1886 separate
wires, each wire strung separately across
the East River, while one hundred and
forty men spun the huge steel rope. This
daring band of workmen bound twenty
six tons of steel wires into this cable web
each day, each wire thirty-tive hundred
feet long, and only three-sixteenths of an
inch in diameter, scarcely bigger than
heavy picture wire. Five thousand tons
of steel were fashioned thus into four
cables the thickness of stout tree, and
the strength of each little wire, tested
beforehand, became part of a mighty
harmony of effort, all pulling together,
yet the power to bear its gigantic burden
was no more than the united endeavors
of thirty thousand 'picture wires" The
four cables cost 81, 40O,0 00.-Collier's
Weekly.