153 TRANSACTIOKS OF THE [mAY 23, 



Of timber bridges it may also be said that they have had their 

 day and have fulfilled their temporary uses. When railways 

 were first introduced, about the end of the first quarter of the 

 present century, the necessity of providing bridges along their 

 routes, of longer span and cheaper construction than could be 

 furnished in stone, led to a more critical study in the use of tim- 

 ber for bridges than had ever before been bestowed on the sub- 

 ject. Previous to this, however, many noted bridges had been 

 built, which were masterpieces of work in timber, and which 

 have preserved to history a few names which will always be re- 

 membered in connection with the noble art of carpentry — an art 

 now, for various reasons, in its decline. Among these names 

 that of Ulric Gruebenmann, who built the famous bridge over 

 the Rhine at Schaflhausen toward the end of the last century, 

 and the name of Timothy Palmer, of Newburyport, Mass., will 

 always be prominent. The timber highway bridges of the latter 

 in this country were models of scientific, practical, and mechani- 

 cal workmanship. The Schaffhausen bridge stood alone as a 

 great work, in which the inherent principle of construction was 

 the arch, combined with the elements of the common roof, but 

 it brought into use no new principle, and had no elements which 

 might cause it to be reproduced or copied. 



Another name destined to a more substantial and enduring 

 fame in connection with timber bridges is that of Ithiel Towne, 

 for many years before his death an architect of New Haven, 

 Conn. Two or three miles out from New Haven there is a 

 covered bridge spanning a narrow part of Lake Whitney, which, 

 in connection with the subject which we are discussing, has an 

 interesting history. This bridge, which is called the Towne 

 Lattice Bridge, although presenting in itself no artistic feature, 

 being entirely covered in, and being, in fact, the first of the 

 bridges which on this account was sneered at by the eminent 

 English writer referred, to as looking like "a coflBn for a sea- 

 serpent," is nevertheless the central feature of a limited but 

 charming little landscape, and to the people of New Haven who 

 know its history is the chief object of interest in this particular 

 spot. Few persons, however, are aware of the fact that the 

 mechanical design of this bridge was the first departure from 



