34 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and of the mayors of the two cities, aggregating over two millions of 

 inhabitants ? In the place of stillness and solitude, the footsteps of 

 these millions of human beings ; instead of the smooth waters, " un- 

 vexed by any keel," highways of commerce ablaze with the flags of all 

 nations ; and where once was the green monotony of forested hills, 

 the piled and towering splendors of a vast metropolis, the countless 

 homes of industry, the echoing marts of trade, the gorgeous palaces 

 of luxury, the silent and steadfast spires of worship ! 



To crown all, the work of separation wrought so surely, yet so 

 slowly, by the hand of time, is now reversed in our own day, and 

 " Manahattaa " and " Seawanhaka " are joined again as once they were 

 before the dawn of life in the far azoic ages. 



" It is done ! 

 Clang of bell and roar of gun 

 Send the tidings up and down. 



How the belfries rock and reel! 

 How the great guns, peal on peal, 

 Fling the joy from town to town! " 



" What hath God wrought ! " were the words of wonder which 

 ushered into being the magnetic telegraph, the greatest marvel of the 

 many marvelous inventions of the present century. It was the natu- 

 ral impulse of the pious maiden who chose this first message of rever- 

 ence and awe, to look to the Divine Power as the author of a new 

 gospel. For it was the invisible, and not the visible agency, which 

 addressed itself to her perceptions. Neither the bare poles nor the 

 slender wire, nor even the small battery, could suggest an adequate 

 explanation for the extinction of time and space which was manifest 

 to her senses, and she could only say, "What hath God wrought ! " 



But when we turn from the unsightly telegraph to the graceful 

 structure at whose portal we stand, and when we contrast the airy out- 

 line of its curves of beauty, pendent between massive towers suggestive 

 of art alone, with the overreaching vault of heaven above and the 

 ever-moving flood of waters beneath, the work of Omnipotent Power, 

 we are irresistibly moved to exclaim, " What hath man wrought ! " 



Man hath indeed wrought far more than strikes the eye in this 

 daring undertaking, which, by the general judgment of engineers, 

 stands to-day without a rival among the wonders of human skill. It 

 is not the work of any one man or of any one age. It is the result of 

 the study of the experience and of the knowledge of many men in 

 many ages. It is not merely a creation ; it is a growth. It stands 

 before us to-day as the sum and epitome of human knowledge ; as the 

 very heir of the ages ; as the latest glory of centuries of patient obser- 

 vation, profound study, and accumulated skill, gained, step by step, in 

 the never-ending struggle of man to subdue the forces of Nature to his 

 control and use. 



