The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-09-08
GIGANTIC BRIDGE OVER HUDSON
By Far the Largest Suspension Bridge
in the World.

taking beyond precedent IN the his
tory of engineering, has apparently
been taken from the realm of conJec-
ure and made an actuality by the re-
cent announcement that a company
has been formed to build it, and that
plans have been drafted, the charter
declared constitutional, and the Work
begun, with actual construction to be
entered upon shortly and completed
in the comparatively short period OF
seven years. In announcing the
formal launching of the project, made
public at dinner given few weeks
ago in New York in honor of the
seventy-frst birthday of Gustav Lin
denthal, the designer, who has either
planned $or been consulted in the
planning of practically all the bridges
of the country, the New York Times
said:
"Plans for bridging the Hudson
river with structure suspended from
two towers, each higher than the
Woolworth building, and having a
capacity greater than the four East
river bridges combined, were indors-
ed last night by financial, CONNER
cial, and industrial leaders, at din
ner Of the Hudson River Bridge and
Terminal Association, Inc, at the
Hotel Plaza. Ex-Gov. Alfred E.
Smith, speaking for the Port Au-
thority, of which he is a member,
and Gov. Edward I. Edwards, of New
Jersey, also indorsed the project.
Samuel Rea, president of the
PENNSYLVANIA railroad, was one OF
those who spoke with the warmest
approval of the project. He indicated
that such a structure might furnish
to his railroad a solution for its su-
burban traffic, which, according to
Mr.. Rea, the Pennsylvania railroad
can not continue Indefinitely to
handle through the Pennsylvania
Station.
"Mr. Rea said his interest in the
proposal to bridge the Hudson river
had not wavered since the plan was
first outlined to him twenty-five
years ago by Mr. Lindenthal. He said
that the city of New York and the
business conducted within it had
grown so enormously within the last
decade that it was imperative that
this project should be realized if the
metropolitan district were to hold its
own commercially.
More details of the immense struc-
ture, which will be by far the largest
suspension bridge in the world, are
contained in an article in The Scien-
tiic American, which compares the
bridge by diagrams with other not.
able engineering feats, and gives the
following statistical information:
"The main outlines of the bridge,
as at present determined, call for a
total length from anchorage to an
chorage of $3.50 feet, divided into
two shore spans each LILO feet long,
and a central span across the river
of s,240 feet. The roadway, 220 feet
in width, will be suspended from four
steel chain cables, each consisting of
80 lines of eye-bars arranged in three
banks and enclosed in a water tight
tubular casing of bronze plating,
whose diameter will be fifteen feet
The upper deck will consist OF a
broad automobile and motor-truck
roadway 155 feet in the clear, and
there will also be provision for two
trolley-line tracks and swo 17-foot
walks for passengers. On the lower
deck will be ten trunk railroad lines.
'The function of suspension
bridge anchorage is to resist the hori-
zontal pull of the cables. This, in
the Hudson river bridge, amounts to
100000 tons. Resistance to this pull,
with a wide margin to spare, is OBJ
tanned by building, the anchorage of
such size and weight that the fric-
tional resistance to movement be-
tween itself and the ground is sufti-
cient to hold the cables taut and do
so with a sufficient friction in re-
serve to prevent the slightest move
ment. The engineers calculations
call for mass of masonry measuring
on its base 400 feet in the direction
of the length of the bridge, S75 feet
in width, and 220 feet in height,
while upon this base will stand two
Office buildings 70 feet in width, 250
feet in length, and 2S0 feet in height.
"On an equal scale of magnitude
with the rest of this great structure
is the double-deck suspended floor OF
the bridge. On the upper deck, on
the eYtreme ontside will be two IT.