ITEMS OF INTEREST December 12, 1908 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Following the collapse of the Quebec bridge across the St. Lawrence, the safety of the $24,000,000 Blackwell's Island bridge, now building over the East River, New York, was questioned. An investigation was set afoot, and it was found that if the bridge were opened and subjected to the loads which it was designed to carry, the strains, in some of the members, would enormously exceed those for which the bridge was designed, the excess in the case of one member rising to forty-seven per cent above the safety point.

With the certainty of soon having in hand the report on the physical valuation of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, the Massachusetts Highway Commission will be in a position to make further regulations concerning the telephone service in Massachusetts, and it may be that important reductions in tolls and in rentals will be ordered.

Construction work on the Panama Canal is now costing the Government about $3,000,000 a month. The Spooner act of 1902 authorized the issue of bonds up to $130,000,000 on account of the Isthmian waterway. The $30,000,000 issue made on Dec. 5 will make a total bonded indebtedness on account of the canal of about $84,000,000.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

THE NEED OF MENTAL ACTIVITY