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 



