page_title: Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge
section_title: Charles Ellet, Jr.'s temporary bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge / Conception and construction / Charles Ellet, Jr.'s temporary bridge
caption_attribution_description: English: Daguerreotype of Charles Ellet, Jr.(1810–1862), a civil engineer and commander of a Union iron-clad battering ram fleet.
context_page_description: The Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge stood from 1855 to 1897 across the Niagara River and was the world's first working railway suspension bridge. It spanned 825 feet and stood 2.5 miles downstream of Niagara Falls, where it connected Niagara Falls, Ontario to Niagara Falls, New York. Trains used the upper of its two decks, while pedestrians and carriages used the lower. The bridge was the idea of Canadian politicians, and it was built by an American company and a Canadian company. It was most commonly called the Suspension Bridge, although other names included Niagara Railway Suspension Bridge, Niagara Suspension Bridge, and its official American name of the International Suspension Bridge.
  The bridge was part of Canadian politician William Hamilton Merritt's vision to promote trade within his country and with its neighbor the United States. Many argued that a suspension bridge could not support the safe passage of trains, including bridge builders. Nonetheless, the bridge companies hired Charles Ellet, Jr., who laid a line by a kite across the 800-foot chasm and built a temporary suspension bridge in 1848.
context_section_description: While growing up on a farm in Pennsylvania, Charles Ellet, Jr. scraped through odd jobs, but saved enough money to finance an education at the École nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in France. After attending four months of lectures, he toured Europe before returning to the United States as the only native-born American with European education in engineering. Ellet announced his ambitions to build suspension bridges in his country of birth by proposing to span the Potomac River with one. His proposal was ignored; few were willing to heed a young, inexperienced and impetuous engineer. To gain experience, Ellet started to work on railroads and canals, and later became the chief engineer on the James River and Kanawha Canal project. He further improved his reputation by contributing articles about suspension bridges to respected engineering journals, such as American Railroad Journal; eventually, Ellet built his first suspension bridge over the Schuylkill River, Pennsylvania, in 1842.
  Ellet had the looks of an actor, which were complemented by his entertaining oratorical skills. He took advantage of these characteristics, and used showmanship and dramatics to market his proposals. These skills helped to win him attention and raise his profile both in the public and within the industry.  However, his imperiousness also ruffled the feathers of people, which caused conflicts. Nonetheless, his capability to promote himself had won him the contracts for the Suspension Bridge and the later Wheeling Suspension Bridge; the Wheeling contract was won in July 1847, while Ellet's plan for the Niagara Suspension Bridge was still in its initial stages of construction. Ellet's initial design for the bridge at Niagara placed all forms of transportation on a single deck. The railway track was in the middle of the deck, sandwiched between carriageways and footpaths on the outer sides. Moreover, trains would not go over the bridge; their cars would be disconnected from the heavy locomotives and pulled across the bridge by horses, cables, or lighter 6-short-ton (5.4 t) engines. Before the work could begin, Ellet faced the problem of all suspension bridge construction: getting a line across the gap.
  Ellet's brainstorming sessions with his men raised several ideas that could enable a line to be suspended across the gorge; these included firing cannonballs with the line attached, towing it across the river with a steamer, and tying it to a rocket that would then be launched across the gorge. Ultimately the bridge engineer chose an idea inspired by Benjamin Franklin's experiment with a kite. It was similar to 15th century inventor Leonardo da Vinci's plan to span a gap. Ellet also took the opportunity to generate publicity for his project. Organizing a kite-flying contest, he offered $5 to any boy who flew a kite across the gorge and secured the kite string to the other side. Youths from nearby towns flocked in to participate. Unlike the other boys who flew their kites from the United States side of the gorge, 16-year-old Homan Walsh crossed the river by a ferry upstream and walked to the Canadian side of the bridge site to launch his kite. He almost succeeded on his first attempt; his kite flew across but crashed just short of the shore. After resting several days at a friend's house, Walsh finally got his kite across the gorge and secured its line to a tree.
  Charles Ellet and his team tied a heavier line to the kite string and pulled the joined lines across. They pulled successive heavier and stronger lines across until the final bridge cable—⁷⁄₈ inch (2.2 cm) thick—was hanging across the gorge. The cable was suspended between two wooden towers 40 feet (12 m) tall, and attached to an iron basket. Ellet planned to use this system as a basket ferry to shuttle workers and materials across the gorge, saving time that would otherwise have been spent on land and ferry travel. Through media coverage and word-of-mouth, many people knew of Ellet's efforts and flocked to the site to watch the construction. On March 13, 1848, the system was completed, and 
caption: Charles Ellet, Jr., the first American-born civil engineer with European education in engineering, campaigned for suspension bridges in United States.
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