in the other end, and moves back
and forth as any expansion or contraction occurs. I noticed one day last
winter, when the greatest crush in the history of the bridge occurred,
and when it was estimated that 2500 tons of human beings were
distributed along the bridge at one time, that this slip joint in the
middle was drawn out at least fifteen inches because of the unusual
weight. As each cable, however, is intended to sustain a weight of
12,000 tons, this great crush was a small matter. Still, the constant
motion of the bridge that seems so solid and inflexible is well worth
studying.

I am also very fond of watching the structure sway in a high wind. I was
talking with one of the guards recently, who had been on the bridge
since the day it was opened. He said that early one morning, in the
first high wind that came after the opening, he looked over to the New
York side and apparently saw one of the biggest chimneys in town bending
this way and that, and he stood there transfixed, waiting for it to
fall. It didn't fall, although it bent far over, and he thought it must
be wonderful mortar that could hold so many bricks together. Suddenly he
noticed that the chimney was exactly in a line with one of the vertical
strands from the cables, and he saw at once that it was the bridge and
not the chimney that was swaying. The guard was unprepared for such a
situation. Of course the bridge was moving only a few inches from side
to side, but when this man measured by a chimney a mile away it seemed
to move as much as the chimney apparently had been moving.

This guard said he had been all through the civil war, and had faced
death a hundred times in battle, but he never was so frightened as on
this occasion. He actually expected to see the bridge go down at any
moment, but he stood at his post until relieved. When he got home later
in the morning his wife asked him why he was so pale, and he said that
he had to go and lie down for several hours to recover from the shock.
Nowadays no one thinks anything of a slight swaying of the bridge in a
fierce wind, but to my mind it is one of the most interesting things
about the bridge to watch.

Soon after the bridge was opened word came to Chief Engineer Martin that
Barnum was going to march his entire herd of elephants, with the famous
Jumbo at their head, across the bridge some night. There was no tariff
for elephants, and the Barnum agents hoped that the authorities would
refuse t