1887.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 149 



perity than the bridges found along the lines of intercommuni- 

 cation. 



It is certainly true in our own day that a district in which 

 streams are crossed only by fording is eitlier sparsely populated, 

 or else occupied by ignorant, unthrifty, and improvident com- 

 munities. The energy, the talent, the means of surmounting 

 material obstacles, are in such cases wholly or partially wanting, 

 "while, on the other hand, where wealth is accumulated and 

 science and the arts are fostered, the bridge, in beauty of design 

 and workmanship, is often the most significant expression, not 

 only of the skill and genius of a people, but of their refinement 

 and taste. 



It is unfortunate in this latter respect that the necessities of 

 railway traflBc in modern times have caused the introduction of 

 iorms and modes of construction in iron, scattered everywhere 

 throughout civilized countries, which mar the most delightful 

 landscapes, and which contain no lines of grace perceptible to 

 any one, except the engineer who may claim to find beauty in 

 every structure which fulfils its object. He only knows how 

 much of intellectual labor the uncouth skeletons which carry our 

 railway trains safely across the widest chasms, have cost in the 

 efforts that have been required to design and adapt them to 

 their uses. 



An English writer on the subject of bridges in discussing, 

 forty years ago, the designs of American timber bridges, although 

 compelled to give them the pre-eminence, applied to them the 

 remarkable criticism (because they were boxed in or covered on 

 the sides and top to preserve them from decay), that they 

 "looked like coffins for sea-serpents." 



If this curious criticism be in any way applicable, it might be 

 said now that the coffin has been removed and the skeleton, 

 transmuted into iron, exposed fully to view. 



It would appear to be not only difficult, but, in the eyes of 

 many, a violation of constructive art, to attempt to give the same 

 pleasing appearances to most modern systems of iron bridges 

 that are easily and naturally embodied in bridges of stone ; and 

 although the present is the age of iron, yet it is to be hoped that 

 the stone bridge, once the pride of the great engineers of his- 



