EOEBLING, JOHN A. 



607 



man's cause ; that it alone will secure her equal pay 

 for labor, and equal professional and official relations. 



The finances of the State are in a sound 

 condition. The funded indebtedness at the 

 close of the war was $4,000,000, of which there 

 has subsequently been redeemed $1,072,500, 

 leaving outstanding $2,927,500 in State bonds, 

 bearing interest at six per cent, per annum, 

 payable semiannually. None of the bonds are 

 payable previous to 1882. 



At the end of the fiscal year, April 30, 1868, 

 the Treasury was overdrawn $61,574.62. 

 The receipts from the ordinary sources of 

 revenue for the fiscal year ending April 30, 



1869, were .. ....;...... 



Payments during the same period, exclusive 

 of $61,474.62 for overdrafts, and $132,000 for 

 redemption of State bonds, were 440,590 71 



Being an excess in receipts of 247,912 3fi 



DeductiHg the last two items above named, 

 for overdrafts and bonds redeemed, and 

 adding receipts from other sources, there 

 remained in the Treasury on the 30th of 

 April, 1869, 123,224 48 



The estimated receipts of the fiscal year end- 

 ing April 30,1870, are 650,000 00 



Estimated payments 580,000 00 



Excess of receipts 70,000 00 



To which add the balance in the Treasury on 

 the 30th of April, 1869, 123.224 48 



Will leave in the Treasury $193,224 48 



Although the State Prison is under the most 

 efficient management, its accommodations are 

 faulty and too limited. A large number of the 

 criminals are now under sentence to the State 

 Farm, where they are profitably employed. 



Governor Padleford has called the attention 

 of the Legislature to the inadequate accom- 

 modations of the present, and the grow- 

 ing needs for a more capacious edifice. The 

 present one was erected more than a century 

 ago, when Ehode Island was one of the least 

 populated of the British colonies, the entire 

 colony having a population of only 40,000. 

 It is hoped that the Legislature will take 

 such action in this matter as will lead to the 

 erection of a State-house, commensurate with 

 the increased wealth and population of the 

 State, and adequate to its present needs. 



EOEBLING, JOHN- AUGUSTUS, a distin- 

 guished civil engineer and builder of suspen- 

 sion bridges, born in the city of Mtilhausen, in 

 Thuringia, Prussia, June 12, 1806 ; died in 

 Brooklyn, New York, July 22, 1869. His 

 academical studies were pursued in his native 

 city, and on their completion he was sent to 

 the Eoyal Polytechnic School, at Berlin, 

 where he received the degree of Civil En- 

 gineer, and, after devoting the three years 

 required to the service of the government, 

 emigrated to this country in 1831. Locating 

 himself near Pittsburg, Pa., he devoted his 

 attention for a few years to agricultural pur- 

 suits, but subsequently became enlisted in the 

 canal improvements, and in the process of time 

 in railway enterprises, surveying lines across 

 the Alleghany Mountains, from Harrisburg to 

 Pittsburg. About this period he commenced 

 the manufacture of wire rope, producing the 



first specimens of that fabric ever made in this 

 country, which after some opposition he suc- 

 ceeded in introducing on the inclined planes 

 of the old Portage Railroad, over which the 

 canal-boats of the Pennsylvania Canal were 

 transported. From his experience in the 

 strength of wire rope he became convinced of 

 its adaptability for bridging, and accordingly 

 in 1844 undertook a project which proved his 

 idea a feasible one a suspension aqueduct 

 over the Alleghany Eiver, at Pittsburg. 

 This comprised seven spans, each of 162 feet, 

 the cables being seven inches in diameter, 

 and, proving successful, was followed by the 

 building of the Monongahela Suspension 

 Bridge, with eight spans 188 feet in length, 

 each supported by 4|-inch cables. In this 

 bridge the pendulum process was employed, 

 to counterbalance adjoining spans under the 

 pressure of unequal loads. In 1848 Mr. Eoe- 

 bling commenced a series of suspension aque- 

 ducts on the line of the Delaware and Hudson 

 Canal, connecting the anthracite coal-regions 

 of Pennsylvania with the tide-water of the 

 Hudson Eiver. These were the Lackawaxen 

 Aqueduct, two spans, 115 feet each, and two 

 7-inch cables; the Delaware Aqueduct, four 

 spans, 134 feet each, and two 8-inch cables; 

 the High Falls Aqueduct, one span, 145 

 feet, and two 8|-inch cables ; and the Never- 

 sink Aqueduct, one span, 170 feet, and two 

 9^-inch cables. They were completed with- 

 in two years, and are all permanent works, 

 needing merely an occasional renewal of 

 the wooden ducts, which decay from the 

 action of the water. It was soon after the 

 completion of these works that Mr. Eoe- 

 bling removed his works and residence to 

 Trenton, N. J. In 1851 Mr. Eoebling under- 

 took to build a suspension bridge across the 

 Niagara, to connect the Central Eailroad of 

 New York and the Great "Western Eailway of 

 Canada, and in four years succeeded in con- 

 structing the first suspension bridge capable 

 of bearing the immense weight of railroad lo- 

 comotives and trains. The span of this bridge is 

 825 feet clear, and its supports are four 10-inch 

 cables. While the Niagara Bridge was building, 

 he was also engaged on another of even greater 

 magnitude. This was to have crossed the 

 Kentucky Eiver, on the line of the Cincinnati 

 and Chattanooga Eailroad, with a space of 

 1,224 feet, but before the structure had been 

 completed the company suspended payment, 

 and the work was discontinued. In the 

 fall of 1856, he commenced the great Cincin- 

 nati bridge, whose span is 1,030 feet, and, 

 after having been forced to suspend operations 

 for several years, on account of financial draw- 

 backs, brought it to a successful completion in 

 1867. In the interim, from 1858 to 1860, in- 

 clusive, he was engaged on another suspension 

 bridge at Pittsburg. The last and greatest work 

 of Mr. Eoebling was that on which he was 

 engaged up to the time of his death the East 

 Eiver Bridge, from New York to Brooklyn. 



