“Regarding your health”: WAR to Francis Collingwood, undated. RPI.
Note with check for minerals: RPI.
WAR to HCM concerning Keystone Bridge rumor: December 6, 1875. RPI.
Eads lawsuit: Papers on file at RPI; exchange of letters between Eads and WAR, Engineering (London), May 16, June 27, September 5, 1873.
“Its perusal has left only the one prominent impression”; “My actual experience in the St. Louis caisson”; “You might as well patent contrivances in a ship’s rigging”; “In conclusion I beg to assure Captain Eads”: Engineering (London), June 27, 1873.
G. K. Warren and the St. Louis Bridge: Gilbert and Billington, “The Eads Bridge and Nineteenth-Century River Politics.”
“I am willing to accede to the proposition”: WAR to William Paine, May 10, 1876. RPI.
“My health has become of late so precarious”: WAR to HCM, December 1875. RPI.
WAR on his brother Charles: WAR, “Memorial to Charles Roebling,” October 1918, RUL; also quoted in Schuyler, The Roeblings, pp. 324-326.
“He lost no opportunity”: WAR, notes for what was apparently to be an autobiographical sketch, written July 1898. RUL.
Feelings of indignation: Ibid.
Personal expenses: WAR, notebooks. RPI.
“Their grounds cover fourteen acres”: Eagle, August 8, 1876.
Roebling Centennial display: Ibid.; photograph, RPI. The section of cable made up for the Centennial Exhibition is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution, in the Museum of History and Technology.
Wire: Specifications for Steel Cable Wire, for the East River Suspension Bridge—1876, original copy, RPI; also LER.
Machinery Hall: Brown, The Year of the Century: 1876, pp. 112-137.
Starting of the Corliss engine: Scientific American, May 20, 1876.
“It was a scene to be remembered”: Ibid.
“The engineer sits reading his newspaper”: The Atlantic Monthly, July 1876.
WAR to return to Brooklyn: WAR to William Paine, undated. RPI.
“He is a man of great resource”: WAR to HCM, May 6, 1876. RPI.
Telegrams: Originals in scrapbook kept by EWR. RPI.
17 A Perfect Pandemonium
The description of hanging the first rope is drawn from the following: Eagle, August 14 and 15, 1876; New York Herald, August 15, 1876; New York Tribune, August 15, 1876; Scientific American, September 2, 1876; Van Nostrand’s Eclectic Engineering Magazine, October 1876; Farrington to WAR, December 30, 1876, LER; Farrington, Concise Description of the East River Bridge, pp. 28—30.
“In a few seconds the rope began to move”: Farrington, Concise Description of the East River Bridge, p. 30.
“When it is considered that one has to climb”: New York Herald, August 15, 1876.
Farrington’s ride: Eagle, August 25, 1876; New York Herald, New York Tribune, New York Times, Brooklyn Argus, August 26, 1876; Farrington to WAR, December 30, 1876, LER; Conant, “The Brooklyn Bridge.”
Ten thousand spectators: New York Tribune, August 26, 1876.
“The ride gave me a magnificent view”: Farrington, Concise Description of the East River Bridge, p. 36.
Farrington complains of notoriety: Farrington to WAR, December 30, 1876. LER.
“He does most of the brain work”: Unidentified clipping in a scrapbook kept by EWR. RPI.
High-wire acrobatics on Saturday, August 26: Eagle, same day; New York Herald, Tribune, Sun, and World for August 28.
“Mr. Harry Supple was all that could be desired”: William Paine to WAR, December 31, 1876. LER.
Second day of acrobatics, Monday, August 28: Eagle, same day; New York Herald, Tribune, Sun, and World for August 29.
“I have carried out your instructions”: Farrington to WAR, December 30, 1876. LER.
18 Number 8, Birmingham Gauge
Hewitt and Tilden: Nevins, Abram S. Hewitt, pp. 305-310.
“Hewitt was as true a patriot”: Ibid., p. 317.
“who played the game for ambition”: Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, p. 373.
“the best-equipped, the most active-minded”: Ibid., pp. 295.
Hewitt resolution: Meeting of the Trustees, New York and Brooklyn Bridge, September 7, 1876, New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, 1867-1884, pp. 383-384; Eagle, September 7 and 8; New York Tribune, September 8, 1876.
“I am very strongly opposed”: Tribune, September 8, 1876.
Tweed arrested in Spain: Werner, Tammany Hall, pp. 247-251.
Letter of resignation: WAR to HCM, September 8, 1876. RPI.
WAR to the Eagle: Undated. RPI.
“I was publicly and specifically singled out”: WAR to HCM, September 11, 1876. RPI.
Haigh’s matrimonial adventures: Eagle, January 6, 1880.
WAR returns to New York City by barge: Unidentified clipping in a scrapbook kept by EWR. RPI.
“There is something colossal in the look of the East River piers”: Ibid.
HCM notified of stock sale: WAR to HCM, November 2, 1876. RPI.
Aspinwall proposal: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 384-386; Eagle, November 14, 1876.
Presidency stolen: Nevins, Abram S. Hewitt, p. 320 ff.
Men to be trained: WAR to HCM, November 6, 1876. RPI.
Oil kettles, sample ferrule, iron and steel rope: WAR to Farrington, November 16, 1876. RPI.
“Man is after all a very finite being”: WAR to James S. T. Stranahan, November 20, 1876. RPI.
Technical instructions to Trenton: WAR to Ferdinand Roebling, undated. RPI.
Requirements for Number 8, Birmingham Gauge: Specifications for Steel Cable Wire, for the East River Suspension Bridge—1876, original copy, RPI; also LER.
Opening and contents of the bids: Meeting of the Trustees, November 4, 1876, New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 387—389; also, Meeting of the Executive Committee, December 6, 1876, Proceedings, pp. 643-645.
Reporter sees Martin and HCM: New York Herald, December 16, 1876.
“If one man’s samples”: WAR to HCM, December 15, 1876. LER.
Hill’s computations: New York Herald, December 16, 1876.
Aspinwall and Kinsella comment: New York Herald, December 20, 1876.
Hill’s answer: New York Herald, December 21, 1876.
Executive Committee Meeting of December 23, 1876: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 645—646.
WAR’s report on tests: WAR to HCM, December 18, 1876. LER
Board of Directors’ Meeting of December 28, 1876: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, p. 389.
“Unquestionably Bessemer steel wire is the cheapest”: Eagle, January 10, 1877.
Model of cable and Hildenbrand drawing: Eagle, December 26, 1876.
Trustees’ Meeting of January 11, 1877: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 389-391.
“The assurance of the correct performance”: WAR, Report of the Chief Engineer of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, January 1, 1877, p. 18. LER.
Slocum requests Army engineers: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 389-391.
Hewitt letter: Eagle, January 12, 1877.
Brooklyn Theater fire: New York Times, December 6, 1876.
Ashtabula disaster: Gies, Bridges and Men, pp. 125—130. Footnote: Ibid., p. 130.
Trustees’ response to Hewitt’s letter: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 389-391; Eagle, January 12, 1877.
Kinsella’s comments on decision: Eagle, January 16, 1877.
“They can help us and the public”: Union, January 16, 1877.
“My attention has been called”: Eagle, January 23, 1877.
“It has become the deepest of mysteries”: Union, January 18, 1877.
“In laying this plan”: WAR, private notes, undated. RPI.
19 The Gigantic Spinning Machine
“I never saw better days for bridge work”: Eagle, clipping in a scrapbook kept by EWR, no date. RPI.
“…no man can be a bridge b
uilder”: Unidentified clipping, dated February 12, 1877, in a scrapbook kept by EWR. RPI.
“The undulating of the bridge”: New York Tribune, February 19, 1877.
WAR’s sign at the footbridge entrance: From a photograph.
“Trinity Church steeple was fencing”: New York Tribune, February 12, 1877.
Farrington discloses imagined report of crossing (fn.): Farrington, Concise Description of the East River Bridge.
“While Revs. Drs. Storrs and Buddington”: Eagle, February 22, 1877.
Lengthy descriptions of the wire spinning and of the array of apparatus involved were published in the Eagle, June 1 and July 7, 1877, and in Appleton’s Journal, January 1878; “The Gigantic Spinning Machine”: Eagle, July 6, 1877.
Report of WAR’s return to Brooklyn: Eagle, May 20, 1877.
HCM and the footbridge craze: New York Illustrated Times, August 18, 1877.
“I started to go once”: Ibid.
Seaman’s epileptic fit: The New York Times, September 20, 1877.
Eagle’s comments on suicide: October 19, 1877.
“It is as brittle as glass”: WAR to Paine, December 3, 1877. RPI.
“This is what Mr. Kinsella is pleased to call the best”: WAR to HCM, December 3, 1877. RPI.
Kinsella says cost no issue: Eagle, December 4, 1877.
“All of which is bosh”: Union and Argus, December 4, 1877.
Accident at the Brooklyn anchorage: Eagle, December 23, 1877; Union and Argus, December 24.
“The brick arch fell because it had a right to fall”: WAR to HCM, December 31, 1877. RPI.
“There are so many points to be considered”: WAR to Hildenbrand, January 9, 1878. RPI.
“I want you to help me get out a specification”: WAR to Farrington, February 9, 1878. RPI.
January 8 meeting of the Executive Committee: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 667—668.
“Of course more or less legal information is required”: Union and Argus, January 8, 1878.
20 Wire Fraud
“Yet the existence of evil in human life”: JAR, “Life and Creation,” 1864. RUL.
Storm of January 31, 1878: WAR, Communication from Chief Engineer W. A. Roebling, In Regard to the Method of Steam Transit Over the East River Bridge, p. 8, LER; Eagle, January 31, 1878.
Murphy predicts 1880 completion: Eagle, February 5, 1878.
WAR plans for bridge trains: Eagle, March 4, 1878.
“An ingenious arrangement”: WAR, Communication from Chief Engineer W. A. Roebling, p. 6, fn.
“Neither, must we overlook the effect”: Ibid., p. 5.
Minnesota clips a cable: Eagle, March 4, 1878.
Death of Tweed: Werner, Tammany Hall, pp. 257-258.
“He never thought of angels”: Ibid.
“If he had died in 1870”: Callow, The Tweed Ring, p. 298.
“Alas! Alas! young men”: Ibid., quoted, p. 297.
“A villain of more brains”: Quoted in Werner, Tammany Hall, p. 263.
“Well, the Brooklyn people have no right”: New York Sun, clipping in a scrapbook kept by EWR. RPI.
Virtually every paper on both sides of the river carried a long account of the breaking of the cable. This description has been drawn chiefly from the following: Brooklyn Union and Argus, June 14 and 15, 1878; New York Herald, June 15, 1878; Eagle, June 14 and 15, 1878; New York Times, June 15 and 16, 1878; New York World, June 16.
“It will not sway from side to side”: New York World, June 30, 1878.
HCM cuts back the work: Eagle, August 12, 1878.
The exchange of letters between WAR and HCM concerning the Haigh wire deception is contained in “Exhibit No. 6,” New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 132-138. They include: WAR to HCM, July 9 and 22, 1878; HCM to WAR, July 25, 1878; WAR to HCM, July 28 and August 6, 1878.
Trustees’ meeting of August 5, 1878: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, p. 441.
Trustees’ meeting of August 7, 1878: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, p. 441.
WAR’s private notes on Haigh: RPI.
“We have brought machinery to a pitch”: George, Social Problems, p. 19.
“The thousands who daily cross”: Eagle, August 8, 1878.
“It has pleased the average penny-a-liner”: EWR, unpublished biographical sketch of WAR. RPI.
“Each must hang in its own peculiar length”: Appleton’s Journal, January 1878.
Close call on the buggy: Eagle, January 5, 1879.
Wrapping wire contract changed: Meeting of the Executive Committee, September 12, 1878, New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, p. 682.
“The end, then, is near”: Eagle, October 5, 1878.
21 Emily
“At first I thought I would succumb”: WAR, sometime in the spring of 1903. RUL.
“Mrs. Roebling is a tall and handsome woman”: Trenton Gazette, April 15, 1894.
“I would send you a little tintype”: WAR to Elvira Roebling, March 5, 1864. RUL.
“You know, darling, that your presence”: WAR to EWR, April 1, 1864. RUL.
“This full moon evening”: WAR to EWR, April 15, 1864. RUL.
“After all, dear Emmie”: WAR to EWR, April 4, 1864. RUL.
“Look for a big thief next winter”: WAR to EWR, July 4, 1864. RUL.
“Does the Mary Powell run”: WAR to EWR, August 1, 1864. RUL.
“Your letter describing the visit”: WAR to EWR, June 19, 1864. RUL.
Ferdinand’s reaction to EWR: WAR to EWR, September 1, 1864. RUL.
“When the two hopefuls”: WAR to EWR, September 25, 1864. RUL.
“I still entertain a lively remembrance”: Ibid.
“aspired to no higher distinction”: Blake, History of Putnam County, New York.
Parrott guns bombard Storm King: Pelletreau, History of Putnam County, New York.
Career of G. K. Warren prior to the Civil War: Taylor, Gouverneur Kemble Warren.
The distressing thing about Indian fighting: Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox, pp. 51—52.
Picnic on the Hudson: The painting hangs in the Julia Butterfield Memorial Library, Cold Spring, New York.
“I think we will be a pair of lovers”: WAR to EWR, November 18, 1864. RUL.
Warren and Sheridan at Five Forks: Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox, pp. 348-357.
WAR’s view of Five Forks: WAR to James Rusling, February 18, 1916. RUL.
Effie Afton case: Gies, Bridges and Men, p. 151; Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, pp. 124—125.
“I have heard men like Humphreys”: WAR, private memorandum, written sometime in 1914. RUL.
“It is whispered among the knowing ones”: New York Star, December 17, 1879.
Edge Moor Iron official writes directly to EWR: W. H. Francis to WAR, October 28, 1879. The letter is contained in the scrapbook kept by EWR from May 1878 to October 1882. RPI.
Secretary of State Evarts retained as council: Eagle, January 16, 1879.
Decision of Supreme Court of New York: Ibid.
Decision of Court of Appeals: Eagle, March 25, 1879.
Miller suit: New York Herald and Eagle, February 28, 1879; Eagle, March 7; New York Herald and Eagle, March 31; Eagle, March 23, 1879; Testimony in the Miller Suit to Remove the East River Bridge.
Slocum charges that the engineers are taking bribes: Union and Argus, May 3, 1879; New York World and New York Sun, May 4, 1879.
“And I want to say right here”: Eagle, May 6, 1879.
Davidson and Ferdinand Roebling testify: New York Sun, New York Star, New York World, May 7, 1879; Union and Argus and Eagle, May 8, 1879.
“I hope I have heard for the last time”: WAR to Slocum, May 6, 1879. RPI.
Engineers exonerated: Eagle, New York Sun, New York Herald, May 28, 1879.
Kinsella declines to serve again, new faces on the board: Eagle and Union and Argus, June 9, 1879.
Steinmetz attacks Kingsley: Eagle, June 10, 1879.
Murphy appears to be out: Ibid.
Tay Bridge disaster: Gies, Bridges and Men, pp. 134—146.
“WILL THE TAY DISASTER BE REPEATED”: New York Herald, January 11, 1880.
De Lesseps illustration: EWR’s scrapbook for May 1878 to October 1882, RPI; the illustration is from New York Daily Graphic, February 28, 1880.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper’s view of cable work: November 15, 1879.
J. Lloyd Haigh at Sing Sing: Unidentified clipping in EWR’s scrapbook. RPI.
Kingsley-Steinmetz scene: The incident was widely reported and the dialogue differs somewhat from one account to another. This version is a composite from what appeared in the Eagle, the New York Star, the Sun, the Heraldand the Tribune on October 12, 1880, all of which were carefully entered in EWR’s scrapbook.
RPI alumni dinner: Eagle, February 19, 1881; Engineering News, February 26, 1881.
“The men who have come from the Institute”: Engineering News, February 26, 1881.
Rossiter Raymond at the RPI dinner for 1882 (fn.): Unidentified clippings. RPI.
There is no known description of the view from WAR’s window written at the time. This one has been derived from contemporary photographs of New York taken from the Brooklyn side of the river.
EWR leads the first walk over the bridge: New York Star, Eagle, and the Union and Argus, December 13, 1881.
22 The Man in the Window
“The best way to secure rapid and effective work”: New York Star, August 23, 1882.
Trustees’ meeting of December 12, 1881: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, 1867-1884, pp. 461-462; also New York Star, Brooklyn Union and Argus, and the Eagle, for December 13, 1881.
Stranahan’s customary method: Eagle, December 13, 1881.
Total expenditures January 1, 1882; also HCM’s estimate: Eagle, January 10, 1882.
Meeting of the trustees, October 13, 1881: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, pp. 457-458.
“When I consented to make this change”: WAR to HCM, January 9, 1882, p. 11. LER.
Cables could uproot the anchorages: Ibid., p. 12.
Seth Low at his first trustees’ meeting: Eagle, January 10, 1882.
“the first scholar in college”: Dictionary of American Biography.
Low’s campaign for mayor: Syrett, The City of Brooklyn, 1865-1898.
Meeting of the trustees, June 12, 1882: New York and Brooklyn Bridge Proceedings, p. 468.
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