New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-11-06
THE BryGLED BRIDGE.

The reDort of Nessrs Boiler & Hodge the
engineering experts employed by the Board of
Estimate 10 report upon the greensboro Bridge,
which was given out for publication by the
Bridge Department yesterday, completely JUS
titles the demands made by The Tribune nearly
six months ago. Our articles last May raising
the question if the bridge as being erected
would not be overweighted were pronounced
absurd" hy the Bridge Commissioner, were
treated with high humor by the Mayor, who
asked for an Invitation 70 witness the spectacle
of the collapse, and were the occasion for the
reading 10 us of some austere lessons on the
evils of ''sensationalism'' by some of our con
temporaries. general and technical.
Now MessrS Boiler & Hodge, after a thor
ough study of the bridge and careful calculation
of the stresses, prove that the bridge is over
weighted and must be relieved by the removal
of large mass of structural material In order
to be safe for traffic ar all. and also that the
traffic facilities must be scaled down far below
those planned. and that the remaining facil-
ties must then be used under careful restriction
and regulation to insure safety. Even this con
cession is reached only by great reduction IN
the allowances made as factors of safety for the
maximum strains likely 10 be imposed by diff
ferent classes of traffic from those put in the
contract.
The bridge as originally planned called for
53-foot roadway. on which were also two trolley
tracks Two additional trolley tracks separated
from the roadway, and two elevated railroad
tracks o. an upper deck, with two footpaths
on overhanging balconies The present city
administration modified these plans by putting
all trolley tracks apart from the roadway and
weighing down the upper deck with struct-
IRE intended to carry four elevated tracks In
stead of two These changes added greatly to
the expense Of the bridge and materially IN
creased its dead weight. They are now found
TO have been worse than useless. Great sums
have been suuandered on the addition, and in
stead of increasing the facilities for traffic it
reduces them Messrs Boiler & Hodge report
that part of the upper deck on which two ele-
waited tracks were to rest must be entirely re
moved to decrease deadweight, while the re-
naming part on which the other two elevated
tracks were TO rest should be kept free from
trains and be used only for footwaIks. Only
bv sill further reduction IN weight beyond that
now recommended can the structure he made
To carry safely two elevated tracks, should
their use be found imperative. After large re
auctions in dead weight the four trolley tracks
can be used provided the cars carefully
spaced and congestion of load avoided Thus
the Bridge Departments attempt to improve on
the original plan by providing two more tracks
probably results, at great expense, in providing
two less,
This is the melancholy outcome of the stu
nendous laundering of the Bridge Commissioner
and his assistants Their action has resulted
either from Grass ignorance or from reckless
Willingness TO waste public money and endanger
lives for the sake Of covering up their own err
rors But for The Tribune they would have
gone on to open the bridge without tnvestiga-
ton and either let it he overstrained and per
haps wrecked by traffic which the experts now
say it would be unable to bear, or else, under
the pretext that all facilities were not vet
needed put off the evil day OF confessing TO the
taxpayers that they could not get the service
for which they paid. Professor Burr, who was
employed by the Bridge Commissioner to ad-
wise him I'm the crisis. practically confirms
Messrs Boiler & Hodges findings, though his
reDort minimizes their significance as a revela-
ton of hungling and dwells on the fact that
Oueens has no present need Of elevated tracks,
but may secure them when needed by further re-
moval OF dead loads, and on the fact that the
bridge may speedily be opened for the trolley
cars restricted as on the old bridges. He
reaches this conclusion by still further increas-
ing the strains deemed prudent by Messrs.
Boiler & Hodge and thereby reducing the
margin of safety deemed necessary by them.
though they made great concessions on this
point from the standard fixed in the contract
Neither of the experts makes any claim that
the bridge can endure anything like the strains
specified in the contract. The largest hope that
can be offered TO the taxpayers and the best
apology that can he offered for the Bridge De
partment is the probability that the structure can
be doctored up TO serve the immediate require
ments of traffic, and may perhaps he further re-
built TO meet some later needs. But that the
bridge could be completed according to contract,
and used as designed without danger, Is not for
an instant cOnended