world, must needs be
purchased at the cost of human life? Let us recall with kindness at
this hour the work of those who labored here faithfully unto the
death, no less than of that great army of men who have wrought, year
in and year out, to execute the great design. Let us give our meed of
praise to-day to the humblest workman who has here done his duty well,
no less than to the great engineer who told him what to do.

The importance of this Bridge in its far-reaching effects at once
entices and baffles the imagination. At either end of the Bridge lies
a great city--cities full of vigorous life. The activities and the
energies of each flow over into the other. The electric current has
conveyed unchecked between the two the interchanging thoughts, but the
rapid river has ever bidden halt to the foot of man. It is as though
the population of these cities had been brought down to the
river-side, year after year, there to be taught patience; and as
though, in this Bridge, after these many years, patience had had her
perfect work. The ardent merchant, the busy lawyer, the impatient
traveler--all, without distinction and without exception--at the river
have been told to wait. No one can compute the loss of time ensuing
daily from delays at the ferries to the multitudes crossing the
stream. And time is not only money--it is opportunity. Brooklyn
becomes available, henceforth, as a place of residence to thousands,
to whom the ability to reach their places of business without
interruption from fog and ice is of paramount importance. To all
Brooklyn's present citizens a distinct boon is given. The certainty of
communication with New York afforded by the Bridge is the fundamental
benefit it confers. Incident to this is the opportunity it gives for
rapid communication.

As the water of the lakes found the salt sea when the Erie Canal was
opened, so surely will quick communication seek and find this noble
Bridge, and as the ships have carried hither and thither the products
of the mighty West, so shall diverging railroads transport the people
swiftly to their homes in the hospitable city of Brooklyn. The Erie
Canal is a waterway through the land connecting the great West with
the older East. This Bridge is a landway over the water, connecting
two cities bearing to each other relations in some respects similar.
It is the function of such works to bless "both him that gives and him
that takes." The development of the West has not