The Great Bridge (84 page)

Low’s comments on WAR at the meeting of the trustees, August 22, 1882:
Eagle,
same date; New York
World,
New York
Sun,
New York
Star,
New York
Herald,
August 23.

“WHEREAS, The Chief Engineer of this Bridge”:
New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings,
pp. 477—478.

Editorial comments in New York papers: All for issues of August 23, 1882.

Iron Age
comment: Issue of August 31, 1882; Newport
Daily News:
August 24, 1883; Trenton
Daily State Gazette
and the
Eagle:
August 23, 1882.

“I take the liberty of writing to express to you my heartfelt gratitude”: EWR to Ludwig Semler, undated. RPI.

“Nobody should be convicted before he is tried”:
Eagle,
September 5, 1882.

WAR would as soon “be out of the bridge” if Kingsley is to decide his fate: Letter to William Paine, September 10, 1882. RPI.

Semler reports on visit to WAR:
Eagle,
September 7, 1882.

Visit of the
World
reporter to Newport: Described by EWR in her letter to William Marshall, undated. RPI.

Meeting of the trustees, September 11, 1882: The entire session was heavily reported by all of the following, from which this account has been drawn, New York
Evening Post,
New York
Sun,
New York
Times,
New York
Star,
New York
Herald,
New York
World,
New York
Tribune,
Brooklyn
Union and Argus,
and the
Eagle,
all for September 12, 1882; also
New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings,
pp. 478-481.

Low tells reporters he is pleased with outcome:
Eagle,
September 12, 1882.

“I actually believe that all that ails him”:
Ibid.

23 And Yet the Bridge Is Beautiful

“And yet the bridge is beautiful in itself”:
Scientific American,
September 22, 1883.

The
Times
on Mrs. Vanderbilt’s party: March 27, 1883.

The
World
on the “Bridge Frauds”: The first of a long series of articles appeared on September 18, 1882, under a headline, “T
HE
B
RIDGE
R
ING, OVERWHELMING PROOFS OF SYSTEMATIC JOBBERY AND OFFICIAL CORRUPTION.”

Kinsella interview:
World,
September 19, 1882.

The seating of the Tammany delegates: The best account of the Syracuse convention is in Nevins,
Grover Cleveland; A Study in Courage.

The
Times
pinpoints Slocum’s association with the bridge as the chief cause of his failure to get the nomination: September 22, 1882.

Mayors Low and Grace appoint accountants to examine the Bridge Company’s books: “Report of the Committee Appointed by the Board of Trustees,”
New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, 1867-1884,
pp. 1-6.

Report of the accountants:
Ibid.,
pp. 7—64.

The bridge as a memorial to HCM: Special meeting of the trustees, December 2, 1882,
New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings,
pp. 483-484.

“What a relief it will be”: Barnard, “The Brooklyn Bridge.”

Scientific American
editor describes the bridge as seen from the river: Issue of September 22, 1883.

United States Illuminating Company gets contract for arc lamps: Meeting of the Executive Committee, February 12, 1883,
New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings,
pp. 745—747; “Report of the Committee on Lighting the Bridge, April 9, 1883,”
Proceedings,
pp. 161-164.

“The scene suggested the subterranean laboratory of a magician”: Quoted in Frederick L. Collins,
Consolidated Gas Company of New York,
1934, pp. 268-270.

EWR explains how superstructure should be made:
Times,
May 23, 1883.

EWR’s ride over the bridge: Only passing mention of the event was made in the papers and then weeks after it happened
(Times,
May 23, 1883).

The fact that the rooster went along turns up only in the Trenton papers many years later, when the bird, stuffed and mounted, was a conversation piece in the Roebling home.

The interview with the
Union
reporter appeared May 16, 1883.

Full accounts of the preparations for “The People’s Day” appeared in just about every paper, off and on, throughout the preceding week.

The
World
now favors the bridge: Swanberg,
Pulitzer,
p. 74.

WAR’s concern about fireworks display: Letter to Stranahan, dated May 5, 1883. RPI.

Hewitt writes for wages of bridge workers, etc.: May 3, 1883, RPI; WAR’s answer to Hewitt, RPI.

“I wish you would make one of my party of ladies”: EWR to Mrs. William G. Wilson, May 17, 1883. New York Historical Society.

Hewitt letter of May 18, 1883: RPI.

24 The People’s Day

Every newspaper on both sides of the East River went to great lengths to describe the opening of the Great Bridge. The sources used most here were the
Eagle,
the
Union,
New York
Times, Sun, World,
and
Tribune,
all for May 25, 1883.

Estimates on crowds pouring into New York:
Times.

“One moment they were clambering clumsily”:
Sun.

“It was as if the forest of masts had blossomed”:
Tribune.

“The women in the crowd raised their hands”:
Sun.

Arthur trods the bridge “with an elastic step”:
Sun.

Arthur “an Apollo in form”:
Ibid.

Large portions of the Opening Day addresses were carried in the papers of May 25, but the complete text is contained in a commemorative book,
Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge,
published by the Bridge Company.

WAR’s day and the reception at 110 Columbia Heights were also covered in most newspaper accounts of the day’s events. See in particular the
Tribune
and the
Sun.

“As the sun went down the scene from the bridge was beautiful”:
Sun.

“Why I thought Brooklyn had one hotel”:
Ibid.

The most interesting account of the first crowds to cross the bridge was provided by the
Times.

Epilogue

Attendance figures for first three days: New York
Tribune,
May 26, 28, 1883.

The Memorial Day tragedy: New York
Times
and
Tribune,
June 1, 1883.

“That was my first view of a great calamity”: Josephson,
Al Smith, Hero of the Cities,
p. 24.

Martin’s force: Martin,
Report of the Chief Engineer and Superintendent of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, June 1, 1884.
LER.

Barnum’s elephants:
Times,
May 17, 1884.

Brodie:
Times,
July 23, 24, 1886; Botkin,
New York City Folklore,
pp. 218-223.

Other jumpers: “This Alluring Roadway,”
The New Yorker,
May 17, 1952.

Montgomery Schuyler’s article appeared in
Harper’s Weekly,
the issue of May 26, 1883; also included in Mumford,
Roots of American Architecture,
pp. 159—168.

James: See his
American Scene;
for the best analysis of how he and other American intellectuals and artists responded to the bridge, see Trachtenberg,
Brooklyn Bridge; Fact and Symbol,
pp. 129-165.

“The stone plays against the steel” plus other Mumford comments on the bridge:
Sticks and Stones,
pp. 114-117;
The Brown Decades,
pp. 96-106.

“not so much linking places as leaving them”: Scully,
Modern Architecture,
p. 17.

The prominent American architect is Philip Johnson.

All that was needed was a new coat of paint: “This Alluring Roadway,”
The New Yorker,
May 17, 1952.

Roebling’s pleasure over Low’s defeat: WAR to JAR II, November 3-6, 1903. RUL.

“So far as I know not a dollar was stolen”: WAR to James Rusling, January 23, 1916. RUL.

Hildenbrand’s post-Brooklyn career: ASCE,
Transactions,
Vol. 77, 1914.

“Soon I will be the last leaf on the tree”: WAR to JAR II, April 26, 1909. RUL.

EWR at the coronation of Tsar Nicholas: WAR to JAR II, May 24, 1896. RUL.

WAR blocks sale to U.S. Steel:
Ibid.,
p. 352.

“He was now adrift”: WAR in a private memorandum dated March 16, 1922. RUL.

The founding of Roebling, New Jersey: Schuyler,
The Roeblings,
pp. 359-361, 367-373.

Size of WAR’s estate: Schuyler,
The Roeblings,
p. 278.

“…these relationships are those of the heart”: WAR to JAR II, March 21, 1908. RUL.

WAR becomes “almost jovial”: Schuyler,
The Roeblings,
p. 269.

“And yet people say how well you look”: WAR to JAR II, October 19, 1893. RUL.

Times
letter: RUL.

“It means 100,000 spies”: WAR to JAR II, September 15, 1913. RUL.

“It has come to this pass”: WAR to JAR II, October 9, 1914. RUL.

“War in the kitchen”: WAR to JAR II, August 11, 1916. RUL.

WAR’s “oddities”: Schuyler,
The Roeblings,
pp. 263, 274.

“a nice, courteous old gentleman”: Author’s interview with W. H. Pearson, formerly of Trenton.

WAR known as a soft touch: Schuyler,
The Roeblings,
p. 262.