SCHUYLKILL PERMANENT BRIDGE. 53 



ance, from persons either scientifically or practically skilled, 

 in some of the most difficult and dangerous portions of the 

 erection. We were theretore under the necessity of proceed- 

 ing, with such auxiliaries as we could obtain (in which we 

 have generally been peculiarly iortunate) and risquing both 

 public opinion, and the funds of our constituents, on the re- 

 suh." 



" In situations the most hazardous and untried, we had not 

 the encouragement or consolation of general opinio7i. We 

 laboured with persevering industiy against it ; knowing, as we 

 did, that our fellow citizens had even less experience to di- 

 rect their judgment, than ourselves. We were satisfied that 

 our object was worth the boldest attempt ; and that without 

 the accomplishment of what really was, as it appeared in its 

 earliest stages, the most arduous part of our project, the work 

 must be abandoned. ■ Success crowned our perseverance. 

 From this we claim no other merit, than that of having set an 

 example to others, who may be engaged in works so unpro- 

 mising ; attended with similar risques, and affording only a 

 choice of difficulties. In our situation, what in the common 

 course of things might be stiled ccconomy^ would have been 

 ruinous parsimony. Yet whenever real aconovnj could be 

 practised, we have regarded it with the most scrupulous atten- 

 tion. A very great proportion of the expenditures, was for- 

 ced upon us by inexorable necessity. The fruits of them are, 

 for the most part invisible ; large disbursements having been 

 inevitably applied to the coffer dams, in all their variety of ca- 

 sualty and dangerous vicissitude — to the subaqueous, expen- 

 sive, and difficult parts of the piers, and the foundations of the 

 abutments. Participating, ourselves, in either the success qr 

 failure of the design, we relied on the candor of our fellow 

 Stockholders. Impressed with a conviction of having acted 

 from motives the most upright, we trusted, in eveiy event, 

 in their sense, and our consciousness, of our integrity of in- 

 tention, and unremitting regard to our duty. These are all 



