ed into one of the elevators, which were placed at
intervals along its sides from the waterfront to the far-distant point
where it touched the land, and in company with a dozen other pedestrians
speedily rose to the top of the bridge, on which moved two great
platforms or floors, one always keeping on its way to the east, and the
other to the west. The floor of the elevator detached itself from the
rest of the structure and kept company with the movable platform until
all of its passengers had stepped on to the latter, when it returned
with such persons as wished to descend at that point.

As Clewe took his way along the platform, walking westward with it, as
if he would thus hasten his arrival at the other end of the bridge,
he noticed that great improvements had been made during his year of
absence. The structures on the platforms, to which people might retire
in bad weather or when they wished refreshments, were more numerous and
apparently better appointed than when he had seen them last, and the
long rows of benches on which passengers might sit in the open air
during their transit had also increased in number. Many people walked
across the bridge, taking their exercise, while some who were out for
the air and the sake of the view walked in the direction opposite to
that in which the platform was moving, thus lengthening the pleasant
trip.

At the great elevator over the old Battery many passengers went down and
many came up, but the wide platforms still moved to the east and moved
to the west, never stopping or changing their rate of speed.

Roland Clewe remained on the bridge until he had reached its western
end, far out on the old Jersey flats, and there he took a car of the
suspended electric line, which would carry him to his home, some fifty
miles in the interior. The rails of this line ran along the top of
parallel timbers, some twenty feet from the ground, and below and
between these rails the cars were suspended, the wheels which rested on
the rails being attached near the top of the car. Thus it was impossible
for the cars to run off the track; and as their bottoms or floors were
ten or twelve feet from the ground, they could meet with no dangerous
obstacles. In consequence of the safety of this structure, the trains
were run at a very high speed.

Roland Clewe was a man who had given his life, even before he ceased to
be a boy, to the investigation of physical science and its applications,
and those