* 
BSERVERS who witnessed from 
day to day the construction of 
the great Brooklyn Bridge were 
often heard to remark, as they 
looked up with awe from the 
ferry-boats beneath at the workmen suspended 
everywhere among the net-work of cables, " Those 
men look just like spiders in a web." The com- 
parison seemed irresistible, and the writer heard 
it expressed many times. But how few who 
gave utterance to the sentiment realized the 
full significance of the " spider " allusion, or for 
a moment reflected that the span itself was, in 
many particulars of its construction, but a par- 
allel of an engineering feat of which the spider 
was the earliest discoverer. Yet among all the 
distinguished names engraved upon the memorial 
