The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty YearsWerge, John, active 1854-1890
History
The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty Years
Werge, John, active 1854-1890
Photography -- History
The next scenes of our photographic labours were Suspension Bridge, the
Long Rapids, The Whirlpool, and Devil's Hole. These subjects, though not
so grand as Niagara, are still interestingly and closely associated with
the topographical history and legendary interest of the Falls. And we
thought a few "impressions" of the scenes, and a visit to the various
places, would amply repay us for the amount of fatigue we should have to
undergo on such a trip under the scorching sun of _August in America_.
Descending to the shore, and stepping on board the steamer _Maid of the
Mist_, which plies up and down the river for about two miles, on the
tranquil water between the Falls and the Lower Rapids, we were "cast
off," and in a little time reached the landing stage, a short distance
above the Long Rapids. Landing on the American side, we ascended the
steep road, which has been cut out of the precipice, and arriving at
Suspension Bridge, proceeded to examine that wonderful specimen of
engineering skill. It was not then finished, but the lower level was
complete, and foot passengers and carriages could go along. They were
busy making the railway "track" overhead, so that, when finished (which
it is now), it would be a bridge of two stories--the lower one for
passengers on foot and carriages, the upper one for the "cars." I did
not see a "snorting monster" going along that spider's-web-like
structure, but can very well imagine what must be the sensations of
"railway passengers" as they pass along the giddy height. The span of
the bridge, from bank to bank, is 800 feet, and it is 230 feet from the
river to the lower or carriage road. The estimated cost was two hundred
thousand dollars, about £40,000. A boy's toy carried the first wire
across the river. When the wind was blowing straight across, a wire was
attached to a kite, and thus the connecting thread between the two sides
was secured, and afterwards by means of a running wheel, or traveller,
wire after wire was sent across until each strand was made thick enough
to carry the whole weight of the bridge, railway trains, and other
traffic which now pass along. We went on to the bridge, and looked down
on the rapids below, for the bridge spans the river at the narrowest
point, and right over the commencement of the Lower Rapids. It was more
of a test to my nerves to stand at the edge of the bridge and look down
on those fearful rapids than it was to go under the Falls. To us, it
seemed a miracle of ingenuity and skill how, from so frail a connection,
a mere wire, so stupendous a structure could have been formed; and yet,
viewing it from below, or at a distance, it looked like a bridge of
threads. During its erection several accidents occurred. On one
occasion, when the workmen were just venturing on to the cables to lay
the flooring, and before a plank was made fast, one of those sudden
storms, so peculiar to America, came up and carried away all the
flooring into the Rapids.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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