A Bridge of Bad Luck

New York, 1895

The bridge over Newtown Creek at Hunter's Point was knocked out of place on New Year's day by the ship Eurydice. Traffic across the structure was suspended, and it was turned so that navigation would not be interrupted. On Monday the four-masted ship Lansing, in tow, swung against the bridge and smashed it some more. While assisting in clearing away the wreckage George Crane, of Long Island City, had his left hand badly crushed. On the Greenpoint side a large opening along side the iron railing of the bridge was unprotected. John Holmes a blacksmith, walked through the opening on Monday night and fell into the creek. He stuck in the mud and called feebly for help. Policeman Bowes dragged Holmes out of the creek.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1895, p. 1.

North and East River Echoes

1895

About the only place along the East river where an echo is heard after the blowing of whistles on tugs and steamers is the neighborhood of the Brooklyn bridge. The towers of that structure reflect the note, but seldom clearly. On the North river the palisades give back the sound more sharply, and when big blasts are fired the reverberation is like distant thunder. — New York Letter.

Beginning Work for the Bridge

New York, 1895

A start was made on the Long Island City side of the East River Tuesday toward the building of the Blackwell's Island bridge that is to connect Long Island City with New York City. A caisson 133 feet long and 73 feet wide was towed up the river and anchored off Ravenswood, near the proposed site for the pier on the Long Island shore. The work of sinking the caisson will probably be begun in a few days.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

Collapse of Quebec's World's Greatest Bridge

1916

Quebec, Que., Sept. 11. — The span of the world's greatest bridge collapsed into the St. Lawrence river today with a loss of life variously estimated.

The Company erecting the structure placed the number of deaths at upward of 25, but H. P. Borden, a member of the Quebec bridge commission, expressed the opinion that only three persons were lost. Several hours after the accident happened, at 10.30 o'clock, a special train into Quebec brought 20 men who had been injured.

Nine years ago a similar accident at the same spot took a toll of 70 lives. Today 90 men were carried into the river when the 5,000 ton span, being raised from pontoons in an engineering feat designed to complete the $17,000,000 cantilever suspension for transcontinental railway traffic, plunged a distance of fifteen feet into the water and sank 200 feet below the surface perhaps never to be recovered.

Contradictory stories were told regarding the collapse. The pontoons had been removed and the span was being lifted by massive hydraulic jacks when, according to some of the spectators, the northern end of the span fell with the breaking of girders. Frantic efforts were made to plate a chain rope around the tottering structure, but with reports like shells exploding the remaining supports snapped and the span disappeared with a spectacular splash.

Some of the observers said that the structure buckled at the center as it fell. Groups of men at work slipped off into the water and others were knocked into space by flying debris. Scores of craft containing spectators went to the rescue and their endeavors prevented a larger loss of life.

Toronto, Sept. 11. — The property loss resulting from the Quebec bridge disaster will be about $600,000, it was stated here today by George L. Evans of the Dominion Bridge Company. The accident will delay the completion of the structure for ten months, he said.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

Slump in Manicuring Business

1908

Manicuring girls find that their business, like most others, is suffering as a result of the slump in the stock market. But they are still doing fairly well, thanks to bridge whist.

"As long as folks can afford to play bridge we'll have good business," explained one of the nail polishers. "Women who play the game have to be careful about the looks of their hands, they are so conspicuous when dealing and shuffling. In fact, the bridge craze saved the lives of most manicures. Highly polished nails had gone out of style, and the business was going to the dogs when the bridge craze saved the day." — New York Sun.

The Tear Cure

A good cry is a solace to many women. It steadies the nerves, and, added to a cup of tea and an interesting story, forms their idea of supreme happiness. Arising from the perusal of their books with red eyes, swelled features and a sopping pocket handkerchief, they feel their time has not been wasted. — Lady Violet Greville in London Chronicle.

Love

We are dazzled and charmed by those who love deepest, but we are comforted and strengthened by those who love longest.

Famous Old London Bridge

1910

Men Whose Names Will Live in History Dwelt and Worked on the Structure

For centuries Old London bridge, with its double row of houses, was the home of generations who lived and traded over the Thames waters.

Holbein lived and painted there; Osborne, the 'prentice lad leaped through a window in the house of his master, Sir William Hewett, to the rescue of Sir William's daughter, who had fallen into the swollen flood of the river below, and by winning her for his wife laid the foundation of the ducal house of Leeds. Crispin Tucker had his shop on the bridge, to which Pope and Swift and many another author of fame made pilgrimages to purchase books and gossip with the waggish shopkeeper. Crocker's dictionary was printed "at the Looking Glass on London Bridge," and gigantic corn mills dominated the south end of the structure, not many yards from the wonderful Nonsuch House, a high wooden pile with turrets and cupolas brought from Holland.

Such in brief outline was the London bridge which linked the twelfth with the eighteenth century, and which, when it was on its last tottering legs, was removed to give place to its fine successor of our day, the stone in which is said to be nearly double that employed in building St. Paul's Cathedral.