belittled, but has
enlarged New York, and Brooklyn will grow by reason of this Bridge,
not at New York's expense, but to her permanent advantage. The
Brooklyn of 1900 can hardly be guessed at from the city of to-day. The
hand of Time is a mighty hand. To those who are privileged to live in
sight of this noble structure every line of it should be eloquent with
inspiration. Courage, enterprise, skill, faith, endurance--these are
the qualities which have made the great Bridge, and these are the
qualities which will make our city great and our people great. God
grant they never may be lacking in our midst. Gentlemen of the
Trustees, in accepting the Bridge at your hands, I thank you warmly
in Brooklyn's name for your manifold and arduous labors.

ADDRESS OF HON. FRANKLIN EDSON,

MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

MR. PRESIDENT--On behalf of the City of New York, I accept the great
work which you now tender as ready for the public use of the two
cities which it so substantially and, at the same time, so gracefully
joins together.

The City of New York joyfully unites with the City of Brooklyn in
extending to you, sir, and to those who have been associated with you,
sincere congratulations upon the successful completion of this grand
highway, establishing, as it does, an enduring alliance between these
two great cities. Through the wisdom, energy, zeal and patience of
yourself and your co-laborers in this vast enterprise, we are enabled
this day to recognize the fact that a common and unbroken current
flows through the veins of these two cities, which must add in no
small degree to the strength, healthful growth and prosperity of both,
and we believe that what has thus been joined together shall never be
put asunder.

When, more than fifteen years ago, you, Mr. President, foresaw the
advantages that would surely accrue to these cities from the
establishment of such a means of communication between them, few could
be found to look upon such advantages as other than, at best,
problematical. To-day, however, they are recognized, and so fully,
that before this Bridge was completed the building of another not far
distant had begun to be seriously considered.

It was forty years after the vast advantages of water communication
between the Hudson and the great lakes had dawned upon the mind of
Washington, in the course of a tour through the valley of the Mohawk,
that such a work came to be appreciated by the people, an