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From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 8:56 AM
Subject: Aging a Cable to Extend a Bridge's Life
To: letters@nytimes.com
To the Editor:
While the experiment ongoing at Columbia is praiseworthy, it will
teach us more about the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges than about
the Brooklyn. We just don't know the composition of the cable on the
Brooklyn. During the construction, it was discovered that J. Lloyd
Haigh had been supplying cheaper brittle iron wire in lieu of the
expensive steel for which Roebling had paid. To this day, no one know
how much of the wrong wire is incorporated in these load-bearing
cables. Roebling built well, and the bridge continues to serve us
into its second century. Its future is still unknowable.
Barry Levine
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