The Right Way to Build the Bridge.

New York, 1895

Without intending to do so, the Brooklyn Times has placed the board of Supervisors of this county, and the County Engineer, in a false position in respect to the proposed new bridge over Newtown creek at Hunter's Point. It has been made to appear that our Supervisors are trying to make a job out of this public work for some favorite one's benefit. Just the reverse is true. The Supervisors are trying to have the work let under honest circumstances, and as they have the controlling voice, the work will be honestly let or no bridge will be built.

Kings county wants a lift bridge built, after the model of the one seen in Chicago, and we believe it is a very good bridge for Newtown creek. As to the style of bridge the two counties are in harmony. The joint committee have agreed upon a lift bridge, and they have agreed to call upon bridge builders to submit bids with plans of their own for the work. The reason for this is that the lift bridge is patented, even to the bolts, it is said, and if the county by its own plans infringed upon these patents it would be liable in damages. To avoid this responsibility the joint committee decided to throw the whole work open to competition, thereby making the contractors take all the risks of patent infringements, knowing very well that every bidder would base his estimate on terms suitable to the patentees before offering his bid.

The full board of Supervisors of Queens county has ratified the action of the joint committee, but the full board of Supervisors of Kings county has refused its approval. Kings county Supervisors want the lift bridge built by a Mr. Wardell, builder and patentee of the Chicago bridge. In other words, to give Mr. Wardell the job without proper competition. That would be manifestly against public policy, and Queens county's Supervisors will never consent to it. Under the terms proposed by the joint committee Mr. Wardell has an open chance in the competition and he can ask nothing fairer than that. If there should be no competition the two counties would be wholly at the mercy of the person who got the work, and no one could tell how much the bridge would cost. But letting the work out by contract would establish the price, and limit the liability, and prevent jobbery and waste. Queens county does not care if the bridge is never built, for the benefit all inures to Kings county. If the latter county's Supervisors will not act like reasonable men, their constituents will know who to hold responsible. A hundred thousand dollars is a good deal of money, and that sum represents about the difference in cost between the two methods.

The Times will undoubtedly do our Supervisors and Engineer justice when it learns the true inwardness of the case.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 4.