THE GREAT BRIDGE AXD ITS LESSOXS. 351 



to a generous rivalry in perfecting each its own government, recogniz- 

 ing the truth that there is no true liherty without law, and that eter- 

 nal vigilance, which is the only safeguard of liberty, can best be exer- 

 cised within limited areas. 



It would be a most fortunate conclusion if the completion of this 

 bridge should arouse public attention to the absolute necessity of good 

 municipal government, and recall the only principle upon which it can 

 ever be successfully founded. There is reason to hope that this result 

 will follow, because the erection of this structure shows how a prob- 

 lem, analogous to that which confronts us in regard to the city govern- 

 ment, has been met and solved in the domain of physical science. 



The men who controlled this enterprise at the outset were not all 

 of the best type ; some of them, as we have seen, were public jobbers. 

 But they knew that they could not build a bridge, although they had 

 no doubt of their ability to govern a city. They thereupon proceeded 

 to organize the knowledge which existed as to the construction of 

 bridges, and they held the organization thus created responsible for 

 results. Now, we know that it is at least as difficult to govern a city 

 as to build a bridge, and yet, as citizens, we have deliberately allowed 

 the ignorance of the community to be organized for its government, 

 and we then complain that it is a failure. Until we imitate the exam- 

 ple of the ring, and organize the intelligence of the community for its 

 government, our complaint is childish and unreasonable. But we shall 

 be told that there is no analogy between building a bridge and gov- 

 erning a city. Let us examine this objection. A city is made up of 

 infinite interests. They vary from hour to hour, and conflict is the 

 law of their being. Many of the elements of social life are what 

 mathematicians term " variables of the independent order." The jDrob- 

 lem is to reconcile these conflicting interests and variable elements into 

 one organization which shall work without jar, and allow each citizen 

 to pursue his calling, if it be an honest one, in peace and quiet. 



Now, turn to the bridge. It looks like a motionless mass of ma- 

 sonry and metal : but, as a matter of fact, it is instinct with motion. 

 There is not a particle of matter in it which is at rest even for the 

 minutest portion of time. It is an aggregation of unstable elements, 

 changing with every change in the temperature and every movement of 

 the heavenly bodies. The problem was, out of these unstable elements 

 to produce absolute stability ; and it was this problem which the engi- 

 neers, the organized intelligence, had to solve, or confess to inglorious 

 failure. The problem has been solved. In the first construction of 

 suspension-bridges it was attempted to check, repress, and overcome 

 their motion, and failure resulted. It was then seen that motion is the 

 law of existence for suspension-bridges, and provision was made for 

 its free play. Then they became a success. The bridge before us 

 elongates and contracts between the extremes of temperature from 

 fourteen to sixteen inches : the vertical rise and fall in the center of 



