Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-11
THE BRIDGE BUILDERS

TT WAS William James who, having been
i gloomily resigned to a world from which
all heroic adventure seemed to have van
ishcd. glanced out Of car window and
saw n group of structural steel workers
laboring with enormous beams at dizzy
height against the sky and suddenly felt his
heart lifted with n new pride in humanity
llcroism, hc decided. is always part Of
life though il may appear in strange and
unexpected places daring and adventure
are everywhere and always in the service of
mankind
Later Prof James said in cte of his lee
lures at Harvard that such monuments as
were to be built in Boston should be erected
to the men who sweatcd and tolcd under
ground to build the subways and then van
ishcd. ms such men do. when their task was
done. leaving no suggestion of their identity
behind them
We have been hearing grca, deal about
what tn" Delaware Bridge will cost in
money No ono has said anything about
what the bridge will cost in strain and
stress to those individual men whose
strength rittcd against bedrock and against
the tides and the strength of steel will lift
the great structure bit by bit until It is
swung beautifully from one city to another.
The caissons are down and within them for
long time to come there will be continu-
ing revelations of the superb unconscious
courage Of the average man.
Chiefs among the Sons Of Martha these
caisson men are; fine representatives Of the
army that. silent and unseen, does the hard.
heroic labor Of the world. Without the
strength of their arms and their hearts all
the money ever minted would not nut the
bridge in place.
Men in the bridge caissons must work in
scaled chambers under water and endure
artiicially created air pressure high enough
to keep the river from coming in upon them.
They carry special identification tags. some 4
what like those used In the army. because
sometimes they collapse in the streets after
a return to normal atmospheric pressure
Their hospitals represent the first completed
work Mt the bridge terminals.
II is not possible to contemplate the work
Of the bridge builders without feeling much
ms Prof. James did-wthOut deciding that
when the bridge is completed there should
he somewhere about it Il word or n sign or
n symbol in honor Of the men who labored
hardest to build it. There might properly
be a tablet or n list of names or even one
OF those ornamental groups of sculpture
which nrc being put up every day 10 pre-
serve the memory Of lesser men and less
significant causes. For. after all. your
caisson man--thc compassionate worker
OF engineering dctinition--is suggestive OF
more than bridge building.
He represents, in Il form unusually
dramatic, all the world of faithful, touing
men who keep civilization in motion.
When. in the middle Of the night YOU
touch Il button and get light: when trains
and ships arrive or depart. when tho water
flows. when the lamps flare in the evening
10 illuminate the city, when trolleys appear
on time" il is because somewhere men are
watching gauges. tending machinery or
laboring in boiler rooms that you will never
500. When your house is warm in winter
it is because of men who tramp through
snow to labor in mines. The whole form
and order of your life. the comforts and the
security that you take so easily for granted
depend upon the industry and the faithful
ness of men whose names you never will
know. Wherever you 90 and find order and
safety--in railway chasms made for the
easy passage of travellers. on long roads. in
cties-tho Sons Of Martha have been before
YOU TO do the work necessary to your com
fort.
\ proper understanding of the thing tyri-
fed by bridge builders and caissun mon
would do more than yards Of statistics and
miles Of court decisions to solve what is
called the labor problem.