HOW THE CABLES FOR THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE WERE MADE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1091, 3 November 1883, Page 4

HOW THE CABLES FOR THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE WERE MADE.

After the towers had been built and the anchorage made ready, then came the strangest work of all. To make the cables and then put them over the towers would be a difficult matter. Very likely it could not be done at all. So the cables were made, just where they hung, one small wire at a timeThe cables are not chains with links, nor are they twisted like ropes. They are; bundles of straight wires laid side by side, and bound together by wire wound tightly around the outside. They called the work “ weaving the cable.” At the Brooklyn anchorage was placed a powerful steam.engine, and on the top of the anchorage were placed two large wheels, and with the aid of proper machinery the engine caused these wheels to turn forward and backward. Fyom each wheel was stretched a steel rope to the top of the Brooklyn tower, over the river, over the other tower, and-down to the New York anchorage. Here it passed over another wheel, and then stretched all the way back again. The ends were fastened together, making an endless rope, and when the engine moved the ropes travelled to and fro over the river. For this reason they were called the “travellers.” There were, besides these travellers, two more ropes placed side by side. On these wrcre j laid short pieces of oak, thus foot-bridge on which the workmen could cross the river. There were also .other ropes for supporting platforms, on which the men stood as the weaving went on. On each traveller was hung an iron wheel, and as the traveller moved the wheel went with it. It took only ten minutes to send two wires over the river in this way. The mien 1 bn the foot-bridge and on the platforms suspended from the other ropes guided the two wires into place, and thus the cables were woven, little by little, two slender steel wires each time, and carefully laid in the place till 5,434 wires were bound together in a huge, cable, fifteen and three-quarter inches in diameter. The work was fairjy started by the nth of June, 1877, and the last wire was laid on October sth, 1878. There are four cables, each 3,578 feet long, and if all the wires in the four cables were placed in line they would reach over 14 000 miles.

The wdrk was long and dangerous. Sometimes the wire weuld break and fall into the water, and an hour or more would be spent in hauling it up and starting once more. The men on the footbridge or ,on the cradles high in the air watched every wire as it was laid in place. To start and stop the engine, 'men stood on the top of the towers and frjwppd signal flags to the engineer. oSlicbi a mass of wires would not very easily-keep in place, and as the work went on a number of wires were bound .together into jlittle bundles or ropes, '§ud at the end all were bound together into one smooth, round bundle or cable. — Nicholas.

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