When they were seated in the carriage, Alexander began to question his assistant further.

If it were true that the compression members showed strain, with the bridge only two thirds done, then there was nothing to do but pull the whole structure down and begin over again.

Horton kept repeating that he was sure there could be nothing wrong with the estimates.
Alexander grew impatient.

"That's all true, Phil, but we never were justified in assuming that a scale that was perfectly safe for an ordinary bridge would work with anything of such length.

It's all very well on paper, but it remains to be seen whether it can be done in practice.