158 = Mr. Town’s new mode of Bridge-building. 
Arr. XXI.—.1 Description of Irure. Town’s Improve- 
ment in the construction of Wood and Iron Bridges : in- 
tended as a general system of Bridge-Building for rivers, 
creeks, and harbors, of whatever kind of bottoms, for any 
practicable width of span or opening, in every part of the 
country. : 
To establish a general mode of constructing wooden and 
iron Bridges, and which mode of construction shall, at the 
“samé time, be the most simple, permanent, and economical, 
both in erecting and repairing, has been, for a long time, a 
desideratum of great importance to a country so extensive, 
and interspersed with so many wild and majestic rivers as 
ours is. It has been too much the custom for architects and 
builders to pile together materials, each according to his 
own ideas of the scientific principles and practice of Bridge- 
_ building, and the result has been, Ast. That nearly as many 
_ modes of constraction have been adopted as there have 
bridges built. 2d. That many have answered no pur- 
-at all,jand others but very poorly and for a short time, 
while most of the best ones have cost a sum which deters 
and puts it out of the power of probably five-sixths of those 
That architects and builders adhere to their own jdeas in 
_ almost universally true; they are obstinately opposed to the 
of execution which are founded in practice and experience, 
and those which are founded in ignorance and inexperience} 
and in matters of taste, if they would determine in favour 
of classic and well established taste, and that which is ‘the 
