The Bridge and The Boy

Time for the new puzzler.

This one was given to me years ago by my son. He got it from a game he was playing.

Here it is.

Long before planes were invented, some engineers were contemplating building a suspension bridge across the gorge of Niagara Falls. There's a big gorge there. A gorge is a canyon with a river at the bottom, basically.

So they were thinking of building this bridge, but there was no way to get the cables from one side to the other, because there was no boat that could fight that current in the raging water below. They didn't have powered boats back then.

This was in the days of steam, and wind for power. When sailors were made of steel and ships were made of wood.

Anyway, they figured out they had to get the cables across somehow. And the builders staged a contest open to the public to solve their problem.

The contest was won by a young kid, a boy. Shortly after the contest was completed, they were able to run the cables from one side of the gorge to the other.

The puzzler question is very simple.

What was the kid's name?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Auto Riddle

Time for the new puzzler. This one is kind of automotive in nature. Less math than last week, so that's good.

Here we go.

Puzzler time.

This one was sent in to us years ago on an actual legal pad. Lined paper, written by hand. Image that happening now?

Anyway, here it is.

This is in the form of an automotive riddle, if you will.

Here it is.

What is it that you could rarely do with your car back in the day?

And then, you could do it easily.

And then, a few years after that, if you wanted to do it, it would take you 10 times longer than it used to.

And now, this is computerized, so it doesn't matter.

What is it?