ord, one thought can set in motion."

But without the most recent discoveries of science, which have enabled
steel to be substituted for iron--applications made since the original
plans of the Bridge were devised--we should have had a structure fit,
indeed, for use, but of such moderate capacity that we could not have
justified the claim which we are now able to make, that the cities of
New York and Brooklyn have constructed, and to-day rejoice in the
possession of, the crowning glory of an age memorable for great
industrial achievements.

This is not the proper occasion for describing the details of this
undertaking. This grateful task will be performed by the engineer in
the final report, with which every great work is properly committed to
the judgment of posterity. But there are some lessons to be drawn from
the line of thought I have followed which may encourage and comfort us
as to the destiny of man and the outcome of human progress.

What message, then, of hope and cheer does this achievement convey to
those who would fain believe that love travels hand in hand with light
along the rugged pathway of time? Have the discoveries of science,
the triumphs of art and the progress of civilization, which have made
its accomplishment a possibility and a reality, promoted the welfare
of mankind, and raised the great mass of the people to a higher plane
of life?

This question can best be answered by comparing the compensation of
the labor employed in the building of this Bridge with the earnings of
labor upon works of equal magnitude in ages gone by. The money
expended for the work of construction proper on the Bridge, exclusive
of land damages and other outlays, such as interest, not entering into
actual cost, is nine million ($9,000,000) dollars. This money has been
distributed in numberless channels--for quarrying, for mining, for
smelting, for fabricating the metals, for shaping the materials, and
erecting the work, employing every kind and form of human labor. The
wages paid at the Bridge itself may be taken as the fair standard of
the wages paid for the work done elsewhere. These wages are:

Average.
Laborers, $1 75 per day.
Blacksmiths, 3 50 to $4 00 do.
Carpenters, 3 00 to 3 50 do.
Masons and Stonecutters, 3 50 to 4 00 do.
Riggers, 2 00 to 2 50 do.
Painters, 2 00 to 3 50 do