Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

Fig. 1.—THE WILLIAMSBURGH BRIDGE. [PhotO} Irving UndM) BY F. E. SCHMITT, One of the Editors of “ Engineering News.” The following- article will be of exceptional interest to readers who were pre- viously unaware of the rapid progress made recently in solving the transport problems of the greatest bridge city in the world. The three largest suspension bridges yet built span the East River, and together with a huge cantilever bridge afford a spectacle such as is not to be seen elsewhere. The spinning of suspension bridge cables is described here in considerable detail. EVERY one knows that the rise of the constructor, the engineer, is an inti- mate part of the progress made during the modern era. Bridge-building perhaps brings the engineer’s work most directly before the public eye ; and in bridge-building also are some of his greatest achievements, of which America’s metropolis and gate of entry, New York, presents a surpassingly fine picture. AVitlyn this city s bounds are contained more and greater wonders of the bridge engineer’s art than in any other region of equal size on the face of the globe—a surprising statement, it may be, but true. Paris excels, perhaps, in the grace and beauty of its many bridges ; Niagara Falls has no superior in the aspect of grandeur of its steel networks arching high over the turbulent (1,408) flood in the canon below; 5æt the suprem- acy of New York is not threatened. One needs but to look upon the busy shipping of the broad A CitY East River, upon the immense Qreat span of the Brooklyn Bridge roadway hanging from wire meshwork draped over great stone towers, and upon the dense throng of human traffic that crowds the bridge at every hour, to become fully im- pressed with the vital importance of the problem here presented to the engineer, and with the genius of its solution. A glance up the river shows two younger but no less remarkable bridges ; while the fourth of the family—the most graceful and perfect we may hope—is seen still incomplete, the erectors busily engaged in adding piece by vol. n.