THE GREAT BRIDGE AND ITS LESSONS. 347 



bridge and the increase in strength rendered necessary by a better 

 comprehension of the volume of traffic between the two cities. The 

 items covered by the original estimate of $7,000,000 have thus been 

 raised to $9,000,000, so that $2,000,000 represents the addition to the 

 original estimates, and for this excess, amounting to less than thirty 

 per cent, there is actual value in the bridge in increased dimensions 

 and strength, whereby its capacity has been greatly increased. 



The carriage-ways, as originally designed, would have permitted 

 only a single line of vehicles in each direction. The speed of the en- 

 tire procession, more than a mile long, would therefore have been lim- 

 ited by the rate of the slowest ; and every accident causing stoppage 

 to a single cart would have stopped everything behind it for an in- 

 definite period. It is not too much to say that the removal of this 

 objection, by widening the carriage-ways, has multiplied manifold the 

 practical usefulness of the bridge. 



The statement I have made is due to the memory not only of John 

 A. Roebling, but also of Henry C. Murphy, that great man, who de- 

 voted his last years to this enterprise ; and who, having, like Moses, 

 led the people through the toilsome way, was permitted only to look, 

 but not to enter, upon the promised land. 



This testimony is due also to the living trustees, and to the engi- 

 neers who have controlled and directed this large expenditure in the 

 public service the latter, in the conscientious discharge of professional 

 duty ; and the former, with no other object than the welfare of the 

 public, and without any other possible reward than the good opinion 

 of their fellow-citizens. 



I do not make this statement without a full sense of the responsi- 

 bility which it involves, and I realize that its accuracy will shortly be 

 tested by the report of experts who are now examining the accounts. 

 But it will be found that I have spoken the words of truth and sober- 

 ness. "When the ring absconded, I was asked by William C. Have- 

 meyer, then the Mayor of New 'York, to become a trustee, in order 

 to investigate the expenditures, and to report as to the propriety of 

 going on with the work. This duty was performed without fear or 

 favor. The methods by which the ring proposed to benefit themselves 

 were clear enough, but its members fled before they succeeded in 

 reimbursing themselves for the preliminary expenses which they had 

 defrayed. With their flight a new era commenced, and, during the 

 three years when I acted as a trustee, I am sure that no fraud was 

 committed, and that none was possible. Since that date the board has 

 been controlled by trustees, some of whom are thorough experts in 

 bridge-building, and the others men of such high character that the 

 suggestion of malpractice is improbable to absurdity. 



The bridge has not only been honestly built, but it may be safely 

 asserted that it could not now be duplicated at the same cost. Much 

 money might, however, have been saved if the work had not been 



