National Affairs: Rhode Island’s Bridge

Prime U. S. button-presser is President Hoover. But last week the President could not oblige. In his stead Vice President Curtis did some button-pressing to flash a signal from Washington to Rhode Island. There a cannon boomed salutes. An airplane dropped noisemakers. U. S. Cruiser Dallas tooted its whistle. Two little girls cut ribbons while silk-hatted notables stood by. These ceremonious alarums celebrated the opening of the new Mt. Hope suspension bridge, world’s seventh largest, connecting the two sea-severed fragments of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Best ceremony: initiation of Rhode Island’s Governor Norman Stanley Case and State Senator William H. Vanderbilt into the Wamapoag Indian tribe.

A boon to Newport-bound socialites is the new bridge. Long have they had to cross to the southern peninsula on a slow, chugging ferry, instituted in 1680, onetime carrier of Washington, Lafayette, Rochambeau.