Identifier: newnewyorkcomme00vand (find matches)
Title: The new New York : a commentary on the place and the people
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Van Dyke, John Charles, 1856-1932 Pennell, Joseph, 1857-1926
Subjects: New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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f the structure; on thebridge itself you can see little but hfting towers, droop-ing cables, climbing girders. You must get far enoughaway — on another bridge or on a sky-scraper — to seethe whole bridge at a glance, to get the ensemble. Withsuch necessary distance in between you and the objectof vision, what becomes of sculptured groups or decora-tive patterns? They fade out, blur out, and are whollywanting in carrying power. One comes back to insist that good form is absolutelyneedful in these colossal bridges if beauty is to be a partof them. It is a matter, too, of outline beauty, of thetraced form against the sky. It is in just this respectthat the two lower bridges on the river are so satisfactory,and the two upper ones are so faulty. It is the sweepof the long bending lines from tower to tower, so gratefulto the eye, that pleases us in the one; it is the sharp in-terruption of angle lines, so irritating to the eye, thatdispleases us in the other. And yet it is possible that
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H THE BRIDGES 305 the good form of the first two might be enhanced, andthe harsh form of the second two disguised, or at leastminimized, by still another feature. I mean color. From time out of mind, humanity seems to have as-sociated a bridge with a road, and put down the one asbeing as dirty and as dusty as the other. Perhaps thatis why bridges (especially if of iron or steel) have alwaysbeen painted a black, or gray, or drab, or dust color. Butwhy should this tradition continue with structures thatare high in air, above the dust and dirt, over wide wind-swept rivers? The painting of a battleship a mouldyslate color in preparation for war, we can understand isa necessary disguise; but what a delightful change whenthe war is over and the ship returns to her peace garmentof white with buff funnels! One wonders if a similarchange could not be wrought in the huge East Riverbridges by painting them in less dismal colors. Varie-gated hues would probably not prove satisfactory, andnot even

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