First a String

[289 words] In November of 1847, a civil engineer named Charles Ellet Jr. was commissioned to build a bridge across the Niagara Gorge. As you can imagine the greatest challenge was the start. How could you get the first cable across an 825-foot chasm with 225-foot cliffs on either side?  The solution came from a local ironworker named Theodore Graves Hulett, who suggested a kite-flying contest. A fifteen-year-old boy named Homan Walsh won the $10 cash prize for flying the first kite across the chasm. The day after that successful flight, a stronger line was attached to that kite string and pulled across. Then an even stronger line. Then a rope. Then a cable consisting of thirty-six strands of ten-gauge wire. The bridge would eventually become the world’s first railway suspension bridge. It would connect two countries, and it was strong enough to support a 170-ton locomotive. And it all…