386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



running out and regulating of the wires occupied a year and four 

 months. After the strands of each cable were made, they were united 

 in one bundle, which was wound from end to end with wire. All the 

 wire used had received five coats of oil, and the bundle received an- 

 other coat before the wrapping ; finally, the finished cable was painted 

 with white-lead and oil. Where the cables pass through the tops of 

 the towers, they rest in grooves on iron plates, called saddles, which 

 are 13 feet long, 4 feet 1 inch wide, and 4 feet 3 inches thick in the 

 highest part. The saddles lie lengthwise under the cables, and their 

 tops are rounded so as to afford an easier bearing. Each saddle is 

 supported on 40 wrought-iron rollers, 3 inches in diameter, which 

 rest in grooves on an iron saddle-plate. 



The nineteen shoes, around which the separate strands of a cable 

 are looped, are bolted to as many iron bars, which are 12 feet long, 9 

 inches wide, and 3 inches thick. These bars are laid side by side in 

 two courses, ten in the lower and nine in the upper. They are bolted 

 to another set of similar bars by means of pins running through eyes 

 in the ends of all the bars in each course. In this way chains of bars 

 are formed, each consisting of ten links, which reach backward and 

 downward to the anchor-plates, both plates and chains being imbedded 

 in the masonry of the anchorage. The anchor-plates ai'e elliptical, 

 star-shaped masses of iron, measuring 17^ by 16 feet. There is a series 

 of holes in the middle of each, through which the last links of the 

 chains are passed and fastened by bolts. Four of these plates lie hori- 

 zontally beneath and close to the rear wall of each anchorage. The 

 mass of stone which holds these plates down measures 129 by 119 feet 

 at the base, is 89 feet high on the front and 85 feet at the back. The 

 site of the Brooklyn anchorage was dug down to the water-level, and 

 a platform of timber was laid under water, upon which the first course 

 of stone was laid. The soil on the New York side was so loose that 

 piles had to be driven in order to secure a firm foundation. 



From the terminus the roadway rises to the top of the anchorage 

 over a series of arches which gradually increase in height. Streets run 

 through some of the archways, under the approaches, and the others 

 are to be fitted up with fronts and floors, and let as warehouses. The 

 length of the New York approach is something over a quarter of a 

 mile (1,562^ feet), that of the Brooklyn approach is 971 feet. 



From the anchorages to the towers stretch the landward spans of 

 the bridge, each nearly one fifth of a mile (930 feet) long, while the 

 central span, from tower to tower, measures nearly a third of a mile 

 (1,595^ feel). These three spans are attached to the cables by means 

 of wire ropes. The suspender-ropes vary in length from 170 feet 

 next the towers to 3 feet in the middle of the main span, and each 

 is attached to a wrought-iron band 5 inches wide, which encircles the 

 cable. The band holds a socket into which the end of the suspender 

 is set, and fastened by a pin driven down between the wires, which are 



