272 



mirably suited to that style and scale of 

 scenery. 



Such a construction seems less adapted 

 to bridges of great extent: there is, how- 

 ever, an instance of a most stupendous 

 bridge in China, built on that simple 

 plan. Three hundred piers are joined to- 

 gether without arches, by blocks of black 

 marble, each of which is fifty-four feet in 

 length, and six feet in breadth and in thick- 

 ness : seven of these marble slabs laid paral- 

 lel to each other, make the breadth of the 

 brido-e ; the lenijth of which, exclusive of 

 the abutments, must be sixteen thousand 

 two hundred feet, that is above three miles 

 in length.* When we consider the vast ex- 

 pence and difficulty, even ui«ler the most 

 favourable circumstances, of procuring and 

 transporting above two thousand pieces of 

 marble of such dimensions, it does not seem 

 improbable, that this bridge was erected 



* This account is taken from Fischer's Architecture. He 

 has given a print of the bridge in book 2, plate 14 ; but after 

 describing the particulars, has the following reference ; 

 " V'ide Martin Mart, who measured them very exactly. 

 Atlas of China, page 124." ^ 



