The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-01-14
THE GREATEST BRIDGE In AMERICA

One of the greatest deeds ever
wrought in stone and steel is the new
East River Bridge, which has been for
mally opened. Besides the interest and
admiration excited by the building of
the first bridge that linked Brooklyn
with Manhattan, this far more impos-
ing c!lmax of engineering genius has
passed almost unnOticed. for two rea-
sons.
weaving these tremendous webs of
steer over mile and half of river
ana shore, and swinging the crowded
trainc OF the greatest city of the land
on slender cables around which a man
may clasp his arms, are no longer 4
novelty.
A fifty million dollar tunnel under
| the Hudson River; a thirty-five million
dollar subway driven the length of the
narrow strip of city packed to suffo-
| cation; fifty million dollars worth of
new railway terminals; one. two. or
three new bridges costing fifteen mil
lions 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
capacity is more than twice as great: or
if 300, 900 can be crushed across the old
bridge in a day, then nearly two-thirds
of million will be able to swarm
across the greater structure. Yet the
cost of the new bridge is less by So
100000, 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
1900 feet, mile and third of double
decked steel roadways soaring one hun
dred and thirty-five feet above tide
water, hung from steel towers three
hundred and 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 anchor
ages 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, a seeming paradox when
the Pennsylvania Railroad is spending
millions to replace steel bridges by solid
stone to make a more permanent way.
Much added strength is in the four
cables, which are eighteen and quar-
ter 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
jacketing which hides the most wonder
full and delicate achievement in all
bridge construction. Each of these
four cables is made of 1906 separate
wires, each wire strung separately
across the East River, while one hun
dred and forty men spun the huge steel
rope. This daring band of workmen
bound twentyslx tons of steel wires
into this cable web each day, each wire
thirty-five hundred feet long, and only
three-SiXteenthS of an inch in diameter,
scarcely bigger than heavy picture wire.
Five thousand tons of steel were fash
toned thus into four cables the thick
ness 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 pow
er to bear its gigantic burden was no
more than the united endeavors of
thirty thousand picture wires" The
four cables cost 81, 400, 000.-Collier'S
Weekly.