THE spider's span 105 



tablet upon the stone bridge-tower the spider gets, 

 no credit. 



Day after day and week after week we might 

 have seen, travelHng back and forth against the 

 sky, a wheel-shaped messenger reeling off its tiny 

 wire. Night and day it was busy, each trip add- 

 ing one more strand to the growing cable which 

 was to support the great substructure below. 

 And what was this travelling wheel called ? 

 " The carrier," or " traveller," if I remember right- 

 ly. Why this obviously intentional slight and 

 discourtesy when every field and wood and copse 

 in the country — indeed, on the globe — showed its 

 living example, and bore its myriadfold witness 

 that the " spider " was the only legitimate and 

 proper designation ? 



In the other most notable suspension-bridge, at 

 Niagara, the time-honored methods of the spider 

 were further and conspicuously recognized, but 

 here again without any courteous engraven ac- 

 knowledgment on the tablet of fame, so far as I 

 have learned. 



A kite was flown from the American shore, and 

 reeled out so as to fall upon the Canadian side, 

 and this initial strand was drawn across, and sub- 

 sequently strengthened by the travelling reel. 



The ends of the added wires were firmly se- 

 cured at their anchorage, and the completed cable 

 at length re-enforced by guy-ropes. 



