The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-04-25

ects under way at the same time IN
the San Francisco bay region and each has GER
tain characteristics which make them pre-eml-
nent among such manmade structures. It all
depends upon what one means by greatest
II by greatest" you mean Largest and long
est" then It's the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
bridge you'll be talking about. 1t will be eight
and one-fourth miles long. almost three times as
long as the present worlds largest and longest
bridge that over the Firth of Forth In Scotland
II by greatest you mean the longest suspen-
sion bridge and the highest bridge then
you'll be talking about the Golden Gate bridge,
the 4.2OO-foot length Of whose main span makes
1t the worlds outstanding suspension bridge and
whose 750-foot towers make them the highest and
largest bridge towers ever erected 100 feet high
er than those OF the George Washington bridge
across the Hudson river.
In either case 1t Is impossible to talk about
these bridges without dealing In superlatives,
for each has in one way or another exceeded all
previous records as to size and. taken together.
the two projects establish record which prob
ably will not be exceeded for centuries They
are man-made marvels on scale so colossal
as almost to defy description. The statistics
alone are imposing enough but to make them
understandable to anyone who Is not an engineer
1t Is necessary to give some such comparisons
as these:
In building the San FranciscoOakland Bay
bridge they are using 100000 board feet OF
lumber Do you know how much that is? Well
it's enough to build 5000 hve-room houses. or all
the houses In town Of $4,000 people.
Have you ever seen the city hall In Los An
gees or the Russ building in San Francisco or
the L. c. Smith building In Seattle? The con-
crete and steel In this bridge would make 80
such buildings as any Of those three.
r hp
ualize 1850 tons OF cable wires, But II you're
told that the cable wire used In the bridge Is
long enough, II laid end to end, to encrce the
earth nearly three times you'll get some Idea or
how much wire Is going into that bridge, And
the cable wire Is only small part OF the metal
that's being used. The structural steel, relnforc-
Ing steel and cable wire necessary for the bridge
will take CT per cent of the entire steel output
OF the United States In the year 1888
You've seen 60-story skyscrapers? Well, each
individual tewer Of the bridge, standing more
than roo feet high from the base of Its pier on
the floor OF the bay to It's tip, represents con-
structon Job the equivalent Of such sky
scraper
So much for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
bridge Now for some comparative figures on
the colossus which Will span the famous Golden
Gate through which rushed the god-mad argo-
nauts of 1849
It's not nearly so long as the other one but
because It's the worlds largest suspension bridge
they had to do a lot OF digging and building to
support the tremendous weight OF Its 4,2OOfoot
CHATS more than threeQuarters Of mile, you
knowD span.
Imagine tunnel 10 feet high 10 feet wide
and 20 miles long That was the total excaya
ton for the Golden Gate bridge.
II all the cement that will be used In 1t were
v.1L
way and these barrels were stacked one on top
OF another they would make pile ITO miles
high Or. to put II another way, If all this con-
crete were used to lay sidewalk you and two
or your friends could walk abreast on that side
walk all the way from San Francisco to New
York for 1t would be five feet wide and 3,1S6
miles long.
You've been top of 2o-stery building?
Remember how small the people looked or the
street down below? If you drive your automobile
across the Golden Gate bridge in 1887 and look
down at the people In the boat passing under
the bridge, they'll look inst as small.
And speaking OF automobiles-over the six
lane roadway or the bridge there could pass a
string of automobiles reaching from the Oregon
line to the Mexican border and moving at the
rate of % miles an hour. Sounds like good
place for a Sunday afternoon drive II you want
to avoid traffic congestion, doesn't itD
And no matter how many automobiles were
on the bridge at one time, there's not much
danger of the two cables which support 1t break
ing and letting you drop down into the water
below. You see, each one Is 1914 Inches In diam
eter and weighs 1850 tons. There are 1852
separate wires in each one and II all the wires
were laid end to- end they would reach 10000
mlles-wen over three times around the world
Yes the Golden Gate bridge Is LARGE and sc
is the San Francisco-Oakand Bay bridge In
fact, the latter Is composed of two enormous
structures each longer than New York city's
pride, the George Washington bridge across the