The Washington Bridge

This photograph, by Edward Steichen, of one of the towers of the span across the Hudson, which links New Jersey with Manhattan Island, gives a new concept of the soaring beauty of that prodigious engineering feat. The two towers, each 635 feet high, are made of 40,000 tons of steel. They swing four thirty-six inch diameter cables, weighing 28,400 tons. The main span, of 3,500 feet, is the longest in the world. The bridge was erected in four and a half years, six months ahead of schedule, at a cost of $60,000,000.

In its present state it is a work of vigorous, modern beauty, an enduring monument to the stark simplicity and majesty of the steel age. But, it is said, authorities are presently concerned with adding useless "ornaments" to the tops of the towers, and to the giant piers of the ramps. From this, it is earnestly hoped they will refrain