VIATECTURE. 447 



4. The term Gothic Architecture, is applied to that style which 

 prevailed throughout Great Britain, France, and Germany, in the 

 churches and castles built during the feudal and recent ages. It is 

 characterized by the great height, and long vertical lines of its 

 edifices ; its lofty towers and spires, the former square, the latter 

 pointed, as it were to pierce the sky ; its buttresses, or projecting 

 external piers, to strengthen the walls, with pinnacles surmounting 

 them ; its pointed arches, over doors and windows, the latter often 

 subdivided by mullions ; its clustered columns, formed of several 

 small ones united ; its groined ceilings, formed by pointed arches, 

 often springing from pillars or corbels, and meeting in the groins or 

 ogyves ; and, finally, its great display of ornaments, or tracery and 

 entail, on the ceilings, and around windows, and the galleries of 

 churches. This style, therefore, unites the qualities of strength, 

 sublimity, and neatness ; producing, we think, especially in large 

 buildings, a pleasing and solemn effect. 



In the early Gothic style, from 1189 to 1272, the arches were 

 acute, or lancet. In the pure Gothic, from 1272 to 1461, the arches 

 were equilateral ; each side being an arc of 60 : and in the florid 

 Gothic, from 1461 to 1509, the ogee arch was used ; the upper part 

 being convex downward, and the whole depressed or flattened. The 

 cathedrals, or minsters, that is the central churches of the dioceses, 

 had generally a ground plan in the form of a cross ; the nave, or 

 longest branch, being turned towards the west, where was the main 

 portal, or entrance ; the choir facing the east, with its large oriel, or 

 bay window ; and the north and south branches being called the 

 transepts. The choir contained the chancel : and the rood loft, so 

 named from the holy rood, or holy cross, was placed in the centre 

 of the cathedral. The best English specimens of this style, are the 

 cathedrals of York, Ely, and Lincoln ; and Westminster Abbey. 



CHAPTER IV. 



VIATECTURE. 



WE propose the term Viatecture, as nearly synonymous with Civil 

 Engineering, to include the construction of roads and bridges, rail- 

 roads, and canals, and water works ; and the improvement of rivers 

 and harbors. The basis of this term, in the Latin word via, a road, 

 or way ; as the construction or improvement of ways of communica- 

 tion is the principal object of Civil Engineering. The word En- 

 gineer, or its primitive word engine, is derived from the French 

 engin, signifying any complex machine, but applied originally to 

 machines used in war; the managers of which were termed En- 

 gineers. Civil Engineering was comprehended by Vitruvius, and 

 the older writers, as a part of Architecture : and it was not until 

 about the year 1760, that the term Civil Engineer was applied to 

 the builders of roads, bridges, and canals ; to distinguish them from 

 Engineers, primarily so called, or Military Engineers. The term 



