34 Observations on the taking down and 



regard to the architecture or dress for the proposed design : the 

 practical professors of bridge building, have generally from their 

 talents emerged from subordinate trades ; and their want of know- 

 ledge in the details of architecture, and their habits, lead them to 

 what is easy in design and execution ; hence their works are 

 marked with the characteristics of a barbarous time. A more 

 advanced age will, probably, in contemplating this work, when 

 spanning the Thames, regret a delay in the revival of the science 

 of Ammanati, and the architecture of Palladio. 



The design of the late Mr. Rennie for this bridge seems 

 to have been adapted to a river, where the banks are flat, and 

 of an equal height, and for a canal, in which the current and 

 deep channel, could be maintained in the mid water: how it applies 

 to the site of the present London Bridge may be ascertained by a 

 reference to a section across the river, and through the streets at 

 the site ; and by a plan of the river in which its sinuosities are 

 accurately laid down *. 



In a question involving the consideration of the effects of alter- 

 ing the habit of such a river as the Thames ; of an expenditure of 

 about one million and a half of pounds sterling, simply for that 

 purpose ; of the reputation which may be acquired by this country 

 from the science and art displayed in the erection of so magnificent 

 and difficult a work as the proposed new bridge ; it will scarcely 

 be thought by any one, that the pages of your Journal can be mis- 

 applied in an inquiry into the expediency of taking down the pre- 

 sent bridge; into the good effects to be derived from the demolition 

 of the dam, contrasted with the ill effects foreboded from it; and 

 in urging, as a compliment to the real and affected science of the 

 age, that some exposition of the principles upon which the parts of 

 this bridge have been proportioned, and of the results of the expe- 

 riments made of the strength of the material of which the bridge is 

 to be constructed, should be given for the information of the pub- 

 lic, and its use in future on similar occasions. 



* It is to be regretted that the plans and sections made by Mr. Telford, in 

 his Survey of the Thames, were not published with his Report. 



