human
Think you can keep your head up there?
gpt
Yes. But you were lashed fast then in a swing, and had a rope to hold on to. Here you've got to climb up by yourself without anything to hold on to, and it's twice as high as the average steeple.
human
How high is that?
gpt
Well, the saddles are three hundred and forty feet above the river.
human
Saddles?
gpt
That's what we call 'em. They're beds of steel on top of the towers for the cables to rest on--nice little beds weighing thirty-six tons each.
human
Oh! said I.
gpt
How do you get them up?
human
Swing 'em up with steam-derricks and cables. Guess you wouldn't care for _that_ job, hanging out on one o' those booms by your eyelashes.
gpt
Perhaps not, I admitted.
human
But I'd like to watch it.
gpt
You don't feel in danger yourself, do you, I persisted,
human
Don't, eh? he answered.
gpt
Well, I nearly got cut in two the other day by a plate-washer. It fell over a hundred feet, and went two inches slam into a piece of timber I was standing on.
human
That plate-washer, said he,