ssional
duty; and the former, with no other object than the welfare of the
public, and without any other possible reward than the good opinion of
their fellow-citizens.

I do not make this statement without a full sense of the
responsibility which it involves, and I realize that its accuracy will
shortly be tested by the report of experts who are now examining the
accounts. But it will be found that I have spoken the words of truth
and soberness. When the Ring absconded I was asked by William C.
Havemeyer, then the Mayor of New York, to become a trustee, in order
to investigate the expenditures, and to report as to the propriety of
going on with the work. This duty was performed without fear or favor.
The methods by which the Ring proposed to benefit themselves were
clear enough, but its members fled before they succeeded in
reimbursing themselves for the preliminary expenses which they had
defrayed. With their flight a new era commenced, and during the three
years when I acted as a trustee, I am sure that no fraud was
committed, and that none was possible. Since that time the Board has
been controlled by trustees, some of whom are thorough experts in
bridge building, and the others men of such high character that the
suggestion of malpractice is improbable to absurdity.

The Bridge has not only been honestly built, but it may be safely
asserted that it could not now be duplicated at the same cost. Much
money might, however, have been saved if the work had not been delayed
through want of means, and unnecessary obstacles interposed by
mistaken public officials. Moreover, measured by its capacity, and the
limitations imposed on its construction by its relation to the
interests of traffic and navigation, it is the cheapest structure ever
erected by the genius of man. This will be made evident by a single
comparison with the Britannia Tubular Bridge erected by Stephenson
over the Menai Straits. He adopted the tubular principle, because he
believed that the suspension principle could not be made practical for
railway traffic, although he had to deal with spans not greater than
470 feet. He built a structure that contained 10,540 tons of iron, and
cost 601,000 pounds sterling, or about $3,000,000. Fortunately he has
left a calculation on record as to the possible extension of the
tubular girder, showing that it would reach the limits in which it
could bear only its own weight (62,000 tons), at 1,570 feet. Now,
for a span