That visit proved how much success turns upon trifles.  We found we were not the lowest bidder.  Our chief rival was a bridge-building concern in Chicago to which the board had decided to award the contract.  I lingered and talked with some of the directors.  They were delightfully ignorant of the merits of cast- and wrought-iron.  We had always made the upper cord of the bridge of the latter, while our rivals’ was made of cast-iron.  This furnished my text.  I pictured the result of a steamer striking against the one and against the other.  In the case of the wrought-iron cord it would probably only bend; in the case of the cast-iron it would certainly break and down would come the bridge.  One of the directors, the well-known Perry Smith, was fortunately able to enforce my argument, by stating to the board that what I said was undoubtedly the case about cast-iron.  The other night he had run his buggy in the dark against a lamp-post which was of cast-iron and the lamp-post had broken to pieces.  Am I to be censured if I had little difficulty here in recognizing something akin to the hand of Providence, with Perry Smith the manifest agent?

“Ah, gentlemen,” I said, “there is the point.  A little more money and you could have had the indestructible wrought-iron and your bridge would stand against any steamboat.  We never have built and we never will build a cheap bridge.  Ours don’t fall.”

There was a pause; then the president of the bridge company, Mr. Allison, the great Senator, asked if I would excuse them for a few moments.  I retired.  Soon they recalled me and offered the contract, provided we took the lower price, which was only a few thousand dollars less.  I agreed to the concession.  That cast-iron lamp-post so opportunely smashed gave us one of our most profitable contracts and, what is more, obtained for us the reputation of having taken the Dubuque bridge against all competitors.  It also laid the foundation for me of a lifelong, unbroken friendship with one of America’s best and most valuable public men, Senator Allison.

The moral of that story lies on the surface.  If you want a contract, be on the spot when it is let.  A smashed lamp-post or something equally unthought of may secure the prize if the bidder be on hand.  And if possible stay on hand until you can take the written contract home in your pocket.  This we did at Dubuque, although it was suggested we could leave and it would be sent after us to execute.  We preferred to remain, being anxious to see more of the charms of Dubuque.

After building the Steubenville Bridge, it became a necessity for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to build bridges across the Ohio River at Parkersburg and Wheeling, to prevent their great rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, from possessing a decided advantage.  The days of ferryboats were then fast passing away.  It was in connection with the contracts for these bridges that I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a man, then of great position, Mr. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio.