Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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to carry four times as much traffic as the bridge can hold when loaded to capacity. The span across the river is twice the length of the largest span previously in existence or 3,500 feet long. The weight of the bridge hanging from the cables is 90,000 tons. The anchorage for the cables on the New Jersey side is the hard rock of the Palisades, hollowed out 250 feet deep. On the New York side a solid piece of masonry, 290 feet by 200 feet and ten stories high, is used. The bridge cost $60,000,000. The cable in the George Washington Bridge has a strength of 70,000 pounds per square inch more than the cables in the Brooklyn Bridge, showing the advancement in their research laboratories. Some thirty or more devices were invented and patented by the Roeblings, which made possible the construction of the largest suspension bridge in three years and one month. These facts are important and interesting, but no more so than the single thin wire rope which John Roebling fabricated a century ago, and which made them all possible. What, therefore, could have been more appropriate than naming the new bridge for John Roebling? No one can object to naming the new bridge after George Washington, for he can not be honored too much by his countrymen, but on the other hand there are many men who may not be honored enough. America As Viewed by the World By Ida Wells D URING this time of financial and political distress all over the world, it would be a good time perhaps to see what kind of impression we have created upon our foreign neighbors during the last three hundred years. Ever since the world has been civilized “they say,” meaning the people in general, has often been the best means of spreading and enlarging on the gossip which the feminine part of the world can spread so easily. Sometimes, however, it may be beneficial to learn what others think of us. The first country whose opinion we may consider is that of England. Because of her blood relationship to us her views should be particularly inter ' esting. England’s most noticeable reaction toward us is a profound contempt for the way in which the citizens of the United States disregard law and order. The Congress of the United States makes many laws which are broken by many an unscrupulous person who would be speedily brought to justice and promptly punished by Scotland Yard, according to his crime. Here, however, the English say that the wrongdoer is given a light sentence or none at all, and many of the so-called self-respecting and law abiding persons not only do not object but even allow this wholesale breaking of the law with hardly a cry of protest. As far as finances are concerned, England, although she may think a lot, says very little. To a certain extent she respects the financial standing which the United States has acquired and of course is pleased because the Americans 23

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How and where Roebling found time to do all that he did was a fact to be marvelled at. With no modern conveniences he managed to be a specialist in a half dozen fields. He attended scientific conventions and wrote voluminously for scientific journals. He invented tools and machinery and made his own drawings for the patent office. He designed bridges, canals, and portage railroads and superintended their construction. He was also an earnest student of metaphysics. When he died, he left an incomplete manu ' script of over two thousand pages dealing with his conception of the universe. Yet each night before retiring he recorded carefully the day’s happenings. The contract to design and build the Brooklyn Bridge was awarded to Roebling after much discussion. It was predicted, however, that the wire cables would never be able to support a structure of such weight. He set to work on his designs and plans, but while making a preliminary survey, his foot was crushed on a ferry boat, and he died two weeks later of tetanus. His death, however, did not interrupt work on what was to be his posthumous masterpiece. His son Washington A. Roebling was also a talented engineer. He was thoroughly familiar with the plans for the new bridge and had long enjoyed intimate, professional association with the greatest bridge builder of his day, his own father. With great fervor the son gave himself to the task of completing the project. When the foundation caissons were sunk under the East River, he often went below and worked with the “sand hogs,” eager to see the work at first hand and to be sure that every minute detail was correctly performed. Roebling one day had to be taken out of a caisson, paralysed by the “bends,” the affliction most dreaded by those who work in an atmosphere of conv pressed air. He remained partially paralysed, lost the use of his voice, and constantly suffered great physical pain. From a window in a house in Brooklyn Heights he watched the workers on the bridge with the aid of a telescope. Unable to talk, he wrote his instructions to the builders — page after page of de- tailed notes. Eleven years after the accident, from the same window he watched the President of the United States open the bridge to traffic. He died in 1926 at the age of eighty Tour, leaving a great fortune, a flourishing business, an example of rare courage, and the Brooklyn Bridge. When Washington Roebling resigned as president of the company at Trenton in order to devote all his time to the Brooklyn Bridge, his two brothers, Ferdinand and Charles, took charge of the cable plant. Both died shortly after America’s entrance into the World War, for which the RoeU lings supplied considerably important material, and Ferdinand’s son Karl took charge. Karl literally worked himself to death furnishing the government with war supplies, and when he died in 1921, his brother, the grandson of John Roebling, ascended to the presidency of the company and occupies that post today. The third generation of the Roeblings spun the cables for the Washing ' ton Bridge opened last October twentyTourth. The two towers supporting the cables are 635 feet high. The strand consists of 434 original wires, and 61 strands are compressed into a cable thirty six inches in diameter. The cables consist altogether of 57,000,000 pounds of steel and are strong enough 22

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are so willing to share their money with other countries and to help them out; However, England rather objects because the United States is inclined to dictate how England spends this borrowed money and yet allows other coum tries to spend the money borrowed from us in any way they see fit. Of course the English people as a whole are rather slow and easy going, and they are therefore somewhat surprised and annoyed by the way in which the Americans are always in such a mad rush and are tearing to get some ' where. Then after we have arrived at our destination, we are not satisfied and rush madly off somewhere else, never definitely reaching our goal. Now let us consider the opinions of Germany with whom we have had more contact within these past few years. Germany has produced some of the finest musicians and scientists that the world has ever known; therefore she naturally feels greatly superior to the United States in regard to the fine arts. She feels that the United States takes the more serious and finer things in life too lightly. The Germans are thoroughly convinced that the Americans very seldom go below the surface in order to appreciate art, literature, and science. They regard the superficial appreciation of the fine arts as another problem which the American should solve. In close connection with this contemptuous attitude, she also deplores our materialism which may or may not account for our lack of appreciation of true art. At the same time because of a fear that the United States may refuse to lend Germany any more money, for which she has great need, a certain respect that might otherwise be lack ' ing has sprung up. The next country whose opinion of us it will be interesting to learn is that of France. The French people are probably the most patriotic race of the world. Therefore the Frenchman often comments on the peculiarity of the patriotism of the people of the United States. The pride which many an American has in his heart for the United States is born of the consciousness of the practical advantages which he enjoys by being an American citizen and does not rise from the finer side of his nature. Perhaps this idea which S France has is unjust, but she explains it by the fact that so much of the popu ' lation of the United States is composed of naturalised citizens . To France the United States seems very young and we hardly realise the amusement France obtains by watching our antics. We, as a nation, are like a child who has grown too fast and has had to assume responsibility which causes it to grow old too quickly, and therefore in times of forgetfulness reverts awkwardly to the pleasures of youth. France, as well as Germany and England, points out the materialism of the United States.. The constant thought which occupies the mind of an American is how to make money and become a rich man. France believes that money is our watchword and that we have little thought of anything else. Having discussed the opinions of three of the older countries of Europe, let us glance over those of a more recent government, Soviet Russia. There is no doubt that Soviet Russia greatly mistrusts the United States. She fears that the financial and industrial magnates of this country want a war in the Far East with Soviet Russia. She also mistrusts our military equipment although she hopes in the near future to equal it. In many ways Soviet Russia hopes to be like us, and in her opinion our commercialism is the best 24