ni BRIDGE. 



to I* found ; but the date of thaws work* U unknown ; and from tha 

 very equivocal character of the chronology of the East, there must 

 always prerail a degree of uncertainty with respect to the authenticity 

 of the claim* of thuee nation* to extreme antiquity. Without there- 

 fore <U"Hiig upon the queetion of the claim* of the Chinese to the 

 discovery of the art of bridge building, we may content ourselves by 

 Mxrting that it U to the Roman* that European* owe that useful 

 art, and that the model* they left hare served a* starting point* to the 



' ' ' - : l : i < 



Indeed during the more prosperous days of the Roman empire, the 

 attention of the central administration was directed, with singular 

 energy and perseverance, to the perfection of the means of internal 

 communication : and the making of roads, of which the construction 

 of bridges formed a necessary part, was carried to a very remarkable 

 degree of perfection. The bridges of Rome itaelf have been already 

 " to; but although numerous, and it may be added bold in 



BRIDGE. 



Tleenxa. 



their design and execution, they fell much behind the bridges erected 

 in the province* in both those qualities. Thus the bridge of Narni 

 bad a centre arch with a chord or span of not less than 131 feet ; 

 and the span of the centre arch of the bridge of Alcantara is 101 

 feet: but the bridge erected by Trajan over the Danube was the 

 master-piece of Roman engineering of this particular description. It 

 consisted of 20 semicircular arches of 180 feet 5 inches span, springing 

 from piers 64 feet wide on the line of the axis, by 85 feet 8 inches 

 thick, at a height of 46 feet above the water-line of the river in its 



normal state. Unfortunately the late 



sit 



i not able to carry 



on the vigorous policy of Trajan, and the bridge he had thus built at 

 BO great an expense to enable his own armies to attack the barbarians 

 of Dacia, was so soon made use of by tha Dacians themselves to attack 

 the Roman dominions, that Adrian thought it advisable to destroy the 

 glorious work of hi* predecessor. In France, Spain, Italy, Greece, 

 Asia Minor, and even in Northern Africa, however, the Roman bridges 

 have been fortunate enough in many instances to escape the ravages of 

 time and of war ; and the bridges of Vicenza, Boisseron, Sommiers, 

 St Chamas, 4c., may still be referred to as illustrating the practical 

 and testhetical feeling of the Roman architect* in designing such 

 \\ >[ L-. 



During the stormy interval between the periods of ancient and 

 modern history, the art of bridge-building shared the fate of the other 

 material expressions of civilisation. It was occasionally practised, both 

 by the architects of the Lower Empire, and by the more refined of the 

 conquerors of Rome; indeed, some of the bridges of the time of 

 Juntinian, such as the aqueducts near Constantinople, or the restoration 

 of the Ponte Salaro, were nearly ag striking works of their kind as 

 were the provincial bridge* of the earlier Roman emperors. The 

 extraordinary aqueduct of Spoletto has been usually attributed to 

 Theodoric the Goth, who reigned, however, about the commencement 

 of the 6th, instead of about the middle of the 8th century, to which 

 latter period the construction of this aqueduct has been assigned ; with 

 about as much correctness, be it observed, as in the case of it* author, 

 for the style of architecture adopted in it certainly did not prevail 

 until about 500 years later than it* supposed erection. Whatever were 

 the date of the Spoletto aqueduct, there are no authentic records of 

 the erection of stone or brick bridges of any kind subsequent to the 

 time of Charlemagne until about the commencement of the llth 

 century, when the order of the Freres Pontiers, or du Pont, was estab- 

 lished, for the express purpose of remedying the defective state <>l i ! 

 mode* of communication, arising from the want of new bridged <>r the 

 destruction of the ancient ones. The Pont St Esprit over the Khone, 

 the bridges of Ratisbonne and of Avignon, were amongst the earliest 

 works due to the efforts of this useful association ; or, perhaps, aa the 

 authenticity of the existence of the separate order has been questioned, 

 it would be more correct to attribute the execution of these bridges to 

 the civilising influence of the Church in the middle ages. Slowly the 

 civil authorities of western Europe followed the example set them by 



mmmmmnmmm 



Pavia. 



Ponte Corro. 



br f f n ih M MA F * BoW ' 



al^Ti 17 'M" ^ t2yS?Zi Td I ' I " lon 



^ dg '^r^? en J t t!. Blddeford BriH B ' 

 tnangular Bridge ofCroyUnd berng erected in con- 



any analogous work* about the 12th and 18th ccnturie*. 



The corered brid B OTCT * Ticino * P 8 **' nd the lon causeway 

 and bridge o{ 0nDK fa Qalicia > S I )aiD ' "* """""P* tho mo* *"* 

 able trurtur ' f tha middle ages; and they were worthily followed 

 by the Ponte Corvo, over the MeUa ; the Pont Notre Damef at Paria ; 

 the covered and tho marble bridges of Florence ; the Rialto of Venice ; 



