MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 51 



buildings, this course was here followed, involving 3 or 4 months 

 of incessant daily and nightly anxiety and labor, on account of the 

 tides. For our part, however, we coincide with the opinion of 

 some eminent jiractical engineers, that there is no absolute neces- 

 sity for going to this clay, and that, consequently, in doing so, much 

 needless expenditure of time and money is incurred. The bridge 

 consists of 5 arches, namely, two of 155 feet span each, two of 

 175 feet, and one of 185 feet. The height of rise in the centre 

 arch is 17 feet, and in the others 16 feet and 12 feet respectivel}'. 

 Instead of regularly framed centring, piles were driven down to 

 support the rilDS where required, which doubtless saved the con- 

 tractor much expense both in erection and demolition. The ribs 

 were then wedged up to the soffit of the arch ; these wedges or 

 slacks are now removed, so that each arch rests on its own skew- 

 backs, and the piles can be taken away at once. Mallet's patent 

 buckled plates, which, as most of our readei:s know, are made 

 of about one-quarter inch plates of iron j^laced heated over a 

 mould, and stamped by hydraulic pressure into the shape of a. 

 groined arch, are bolted to the roadway bearers by five-eighths 

 inch rivets, and form an immensely strong platform. On this is 

 f)ut one inch thick of asphalte ; over this again — an addition to 

 and improvement on the usual practice — a lajcv of broken 

 stones and asphalte, from 9 inches to 12 inches in thickness, is 

 placed ; and lastly, on top of all, is granite-jiitching as ordinarily 

 laid on roads. The total length of the bridge is 1,272 feet; its 

 . width, including the roadway of 45 feet, and two footpaths of 15 

 feet each, is 75 feet. The gradient is one in 40. There are 8 

 polished red granite columns, between which there are parapets 

 8 feet 9 inches in height. Over each column there are recesses 

 in which there are seats capa])le of resting ten or a dozen weary 

 pedestrians. A handsome row of lamps will be placed along 

 each pathway, a little back from the curb, — a plan not adopted on 

 any other of the Thames bridges, — and they will be so arranged 

 as to facilitate the navigator after dark. The balustrades are 

 Venetian-Gothic in design. — Van Nostrand's Eng. Mag., Sept., 

 1869. 



The Cincinnati and Newport Bridge. — All preliminary arrange- 

 ments and work have now been begun uj^on this bridge, which is 

 to connect Butler Street, in Cincinnati, with Saratoga Street, in 

 Newport, Kentucky. The stone-work of all the piers is to be of 

 the best limestone, up to the line of high water, and freestone 

 above that, excepting the two piers of the middle, or long span, 

 which will be entirely limestone. Much of the stone for the piers 

 has already been quarried. George A. Smith, of Cincinnati, has 

 the contract for the stone-work. The bridge proper will be of the 

 best wrought iron, in lower and upper chords, uprights, braces, 

 etc. No timber will be used save in the flooring. The train, as 

 seen, will be about 100 feet above low water. This span is 

 planned at a length of 420 feet ; the one next south is 240 feet, 

 and the others as near 200 feet each as the division of distance 

 vrill admit. There will ])e 7 spans in all, with the 8 piers. 

 B yond the front streets of both Newport and Cincinnati, the 



