The flexible girder tramway is an improved system of constructing a modification of the well known and extensively used rope or wire tramway, and it is claimed that it will revolutionize the transport of the products of industrial operations from the place of production to the works or manufactory, railway station, shipping ports, or place of consumption; and that in the result the introduction of the flexible girder tramway will in many cases enable profits to be earned in businesses which have hitherto been unremunerative. It is declared to be at once simple, cheap, durable, and efficient. The improvement consists in the employment, in addition to the usual tram wire (a hempen rope, a wire rope, or a metallic or other rod), along which the load is transported, of a second or suspension wire or rope to which the tram wire is connected by tension rods or their equivalent at intervals between the rigid supports or piers, the object being to diminish or distribute the sagging or deflection of the tram wire, and thus lessen the steepness of the gradients over which the load has to be transported. The combined tram wire, tension rods, suspension wire, and accessories are, for convenience, designated a "flexible girder." Another improvement consists in using, when a double line is employed, stretchers or crossheads to keep the flexible girders nearly parallel to each other, so that when necessary the load to be transported may be suspended from or borne by both tram wires jointly or simultaneously, thus permitting a load of greater weight than that for which each single tram wire is intended to be carried over the system. One indisputable claim for confidence in the flexible girder principle is said to be that, although the peculiar combination of parts constitutes a striking and valuable novelty, it contains nothing that has not been proved by the experience of years--nay, generations--to be useful, economic, and reliable. The usual practice followed in erecting suspension bridges is applicable in mounting the line, and the carriers, supports, and carriages may be of any of the usual forms. For the rapid removal of limited loads wire tramways are in universal favor, and are recognized not only as very economic and quickly constructed, but also as being in many cases the only means of transport available except by the adoption of elaborate and costly engineering works.