THE GREATEST BRIDGE IN THE WORLD.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 161, 28 August 1880, Page 2

THE GREATEST BRIDGE IN THE WORLD.

The Brooklyn bridge, which is Hearing completion, sjiaiminfr ilio ami of- flio sea which separate*) New York from Brooklyn, is without doubt the boldest undertaking in the- way of a bridge, stmctaireeveratlempted. Asia workof engineering skill it cannot be fully Appreciated without knowing something of its magnitude ami the uses for which it is designed.

The total length of t.lvin- V.-ridge if ">!)-S0 feet, and width B:>feet. The contra! ui: .river span is 10{I» feet, being tittOfoeC greater than the now widest spun. This is suspended from four great cable*, each l-Jijinches in diiinutter, running over two lowers, one on each side of the river, 27* feet in height above high water mark.. 'l'h;se cables are each Com posed of o'i'.Mi parallel (not twisted) galvanized oil-coated wires closelv wrapped into a solid cvlinder. The clear height of the bridge in the centre of the river span is to be bioft. The construction of this bridge was coiniuenwd Ji:uumry .1, 1X7(1, and ils builders me ia>\v laying the roadway wiitw. It is now estinvuwl that it will not. he finished beforel.SK2'' and that it will cost wle-u uuinpleUul- at least S1 K .- OOIMKMI. The original estimate of"co.-.i was <d),fHlO,(too, and upon this hypothesis its construction was begun mid carried, on until now ils towers are the most prominent objects seen by the incoming mariner. The time for emitting the cost or weighing the wisdom of the two cities engaging in such a tyeßJendous enterprise Ls now p-jist. and whether the advantages that are to accrue to t!n« publicwill he, adequate, to the cost el' the work or not, it must he linished. Then America may with good reason claim the greatest bridge in tin.- \vo»ld -a bridge that engineers and strangers will regard with wonder and admiration.

The object is to open up uoiiimuniciition between New York nml Hrooklvn For tilt passage nf street mis, road veohioles of ©very description, nml pedestrians, so as to relieve New York i>f its o\ercrowdcd population.