Show BROOKLYN BRIDGE MISHAPS in in islay vw to of cabled the of the brooklyn bridge supports thy lay recalls the panic on the b ida in amny SO 1883 a few days after it waa opened in which 12 persons were cr trampled to death anil were injured want caused the tonic was never pc known kno wn f nys the new york herald 1 l WAK afeld alint n child had boon pushed down the steps leading to the atan end of the footpath by a gang 0 who wished to divert from their operations there waa a crowd of pedestrians on the bridge at alic almo and a blockade bad formed in the footpath above the two short flights ot steps which are only 12 inches wado anda inches high over the farst to fall fell another and another and before any one realized what waa taking place the panic spread everybody on the footpath imagining that the bridge was about to fall nishca down the western slope for the new york bide at the steps men women and children were heaped in a struggling mass over which the crowd behind sought to pass trampling on the prostrate bodies As soon as possible the rush ana checked and the bodies ot the living separated from the dead it was found that ag persons had been hurt this was the worst accident that has taken place since the great bridge was opened tor use but there have been hundreds of minor accidents chiefly caused by the breaking of the cabled which are used to pull the cars across or by runaway horses fears were expressed in august 1808 that the bridge was becoming overcrowded to the danger point it was then detected that little sections of metal under the south middle cable of alie bridge about feet from the manhattan tower and undergone what Is known as buckling members p the staff of bridge engineers said at that time that there was not the remotest chance that the cables would give way the cables they said were not the bridge in outline they were tho very reverse of it they drew attention to the fact that the cables between the towers are curves convex to the arcure arcu rv convex to the sky As the second of thease curves must be a broad surface or roadway to carry the crossing traffic and as this roadway has to derive its support from the cables through intermediary guys 01 stays and suspenders the coefficient of safety for these eus ponders was increased to seven that Is the vertical and the slanting wire ropes which connect the cables and the bridge structure were calculated to sustain seven times the usual load the bridge structure swinging from the four cables would naturally have a tendency to sway from side to side or to rock as a man would in a hammock to prevent this and other possible defects the engineers traversed the entire length of the bridge with six upright or rigid fences so to speak the and height of which should tend to keep abo structure in constant repose for such a the technical name Is a truss the six truss of the bridge are tied at their feet by immense longitudinal girders tt aroh each girder between the towers being nn unbroken length of metal buckling takes place in these girders and Is occasioned by the fact that with the great sagging of the cables in midsummer and the swaying motion occasioned by the uneven distribution of the loading the upturned curve of the bridge tends to flatten and to occupy a shorter distance from end to end As a consequence the girders underneath become too long for the new length of the depressed bridge and try to rectify their excess of length by warping or curving out ot a straight line forming sometimes a letter S on its side this malformation Is called a buckle |