Читать книгу Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, May 24, 1883 - Edson Franklin - Страница 3

In the presence of this great assemblage, and of the chosen representatives of the people of these two great cities, of the Governor of the State of New York and of the President of the United States, the pleasing duty devolves upon me, as the official agent of the Board of Trustees of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, to announce formally to the chief magistrates of these two municipalities that this Bridge is now ready to be opened for public use, and is subject in its control and management only to such restrictions as the people, to whom it belongs, may choose to impose upon themselves. If I were at liberty to consult my own wishes I should not attempt to occupy your attention any further. I am not here as the spokesman of my associates in the Board of Bridge Trustees. They are well content to let this great structure speak for them, and to speak more fittingly and more eloquently yet for the skillful, faithful and daring men who have given so many years of their lives – and in several instances even their lives – to the end that the natural barrier to the union, growth and greatness of this great commercial centre should be removed, and that a vast scientific conception should be matched in the skill, and courage, and endurance upon which it depended for its realization. With one name, in an especial sense, this Bridge will always be associated – that of Roebling. At the outset of this enterprise we were so fortunate as to be able to secure the services of the late John A. Roebling, who had built the chief suspension bridges in this country, and who had just then completed the largest suspension bridge ever constructed up to that time. His name and achievements were of invaluable service to this enterprise in its infancy. They secured for it a confidence not otherwise obtainable. He entered promptly and with more than professional zeal into the work of erecting a bridge over the East River. As is universally known, while testing and perfecting his surveys his foot was crushed between the planks of one of our piers; lockjaw supervened, and the man who designed this Bridge lost his life in its service. The main designs were, however, completed by the elder Roebling before he met his sad and untimely death. He was succeeded at once by his son, Colonel Washington A. Roebling, who had for years before shared in his father's professional confidences and labors. Here the son did not succeed the father by inheritance merely. The elder Roebling, according to his own statements, would not have undertaken the conduct of this work at his age – and he was independent of mere professional gain – if it were not for the fact, as he frequently stated, that he had a son who was entirely capable of building this Bridge. Indeed, the elder Roebling advised that the son, who was destined to carry on and complete the work, should be placed in chief authority at the beginning. The turning point – as determining the feasibility of this enterprise – was reached down in the earth, and under the bed of the East River. During the anxious days and nights while work was going on within the caissons, Colonel Roebling seemed to be always on hand, at the head of his men, to direct their efforts, and to guard against a mishap or a mistake which, at this stage of the work, might have proved to be disastrous. The foundations of the towers were successfully laid, and the problem of the feasibility of the Bridge was solved. Colonel Roebling contracted the mysterious disease in the caissons which had proved fatal to several of the workmen in our employ. For many long and weary years this man, who entered our service young and full of life, and hope, and daring, has been an invalid and confined to his home. He has never seen this structure as it now stands, save from a distance. But the disease, which has shattered his nervous system for the time, seemed not to have enfeebled his mind. It appeared even to quicken his intellect. His physical infirmities shut him out, so to speak, from the world, and left him dependent largely on the society of his family, but it gave him for a companion day and night this darling child of his genius – every step of whose progress he has directed and watched over with paternal solicitude. Colonel Roebling may never walk across this Bridge, as so many of his fellow-men have done to-day, but while this structure stands he will make all who use it his debtor. His infirmities are still such that he who would be the centre of interest on this occasion, and even in this greatly distinguished company, is conspicuous by his absence. This enterprise was only less fortunate in securing an executive head than in obtaining scientific direction. For sixteen years together the late Hon. Henry C. Murphy stood for this work wherever it challenged the enmity of an opponent or needed an advocate, a supporter and a friend. He devised the legislation under which it was commenced. He staked in its inception a large portion of his private fortune on its success. He upheld its feasibility and utility before committees, and legislatures, and law courts, and in every forum of public discussion. For years he looked forward to this day to fittingly close the activities of a long, useful and, in many respects, an illustrious career. It was not permitted him to see it, but he saw very near the end, and he lived long enough to realize, what is now admitted, that he was to the end of his days engaged in a work from which the name of the city he loved so well will never be disassociated, for it is a work the history of which will for all time be embraced in the records of the achievements of American enterprise and of American genius. I am sure I speak for the Board of Trustees in returning their thanks to all the professional gentlemen who have been in our employ – and especially to Messrs. Martin, Paine, Farrington, McNulty and Probasco. For the most part these men have been engaged on the Bridge from its commencement to its completion. It has always seemed to the Trustees as if the highest and the humblest workmen engaged on this work were alike influenced by the spirit of enterprise in which the Bridge had its origin. Men whose daily compensation was not more than sufficient to provide them and their families with their daily bread were at all times ready to take their lives in their hands in the performance of the imperative and perilous duties assigned them. In the direct prosecution of the work twenty men lost their lives. Peace hath its victories, and it has its victims and its martyrs, too. Of the seven consulting engineers to whom the matured plans of the elder Roebling were submitted – all men of the highest eminence in their profession – three have passed away, and four are living to witness, in the assured success of this structure, the one ratification of their judgment which cannot be questioned.

It remains for me to say, in conclusion, that the two cities rose at all times to the level of the spirit of our time and country. Their citizens staked millions on what seemed to many to be an experiment – a structure, it was often said, that at its best would not be of any actual use. How solid it is; how far removed it is from all sense of apprehension; how severely practical it is in all its relations, and how great a factor in the corporate lives of these cities it is destined to be, we all now realize. This Bridge has cost many millions of dollars, and it has taken many years to build it. May I say on this occasion that the people whom you represent (turning to where the Mayors of the two cities stood together) would not part with the Bridge to-day for even twice or thrice its cost? And may I remind those who, not unnaturally, perhaps, have been disappointed and irritated by delays in the past, that those who enter a race with Time for a competitor have an antagonist that makes no mistakes, is subject to no interference and liable to no accident.