SPREADING THE SPANS

It is pleasant to meet a rare type of boon, that which unravels a particularly annoying knot without snarling the string at the other end. For years the Cottage Farm Bridge and the railroad bridge beside it have been a thorn in the flesh of rowers on the Charles. They form a barrier to be passed only with great caution. Now, by a bill pending in the legislature, each of the bridges is expected to give way to a new structure with six fifty-foot spans, and thus to clear the river for rowing from Anderson Bridge to the Basin.

This feature of the pending bridge law is the work of influential Harvard men, former oarsmen among them. In the necessary repair of the Cottage Farm Bridge, they saw the opportunity to remove a vexatious hindrance of which they were thoroughly cognizant. The move can hurt no interest whatever, and benefits others than the University. Besides creating out of hand a two-mile regatta course, the provisions of the measure will make the Charles more freely navigable for small pleasure craft.

This service of the bill is thus unique and thoroughly agreeable. It simply provides for the removal of a universally recognized hindrance. In seizing the opportunity to eliminate this hindrance, those behind the bill are doing a favor appreciated by all interested in rowing as well as those who have come in actual contact with the present snarl of piles.