SCHUYLKILL PERMANENT BRIDGE. 53 



Jince, from persons either scientifically or practically skilled, 

 in some of the most difFicult and dangerous portions of the 

 erection. We were therefore under the necessity oi proceed- -• 

 ing-, Avitli such auxiliaries as we could obtain (in which we 

 have generally been peculiarly fortunate) and risquing both 

 public opinion, and the funds of our constituents, on the re- 

 sult." 



". In situations the most hazardous and untried, we had not 

 the encouragement or consohdioxi gi general opijiio?!. We 

 laboured with persevering industry against it ; knowing, as we 

 did, that our fellow citizens had even less experience to di- 

 rect their judgment, than ourselves. We were satisfied that 

 our object was worth the boldest attempt; and that without 

 the accomplishment of what really was, as it appeared in its 

 earliest stages, the most arduous part of our project, the work 

 must be abandoned. Success crowned our perseverance. 

 From this we claim no other merit, than that of having set an 

 example to others, who may be engaged in works so unpro- 

 mising ; attended with similar risques, and affording only a 

 choice of difficulties. In our situation, what in the common 

 course of things might be stiled ceconomy^ would have been 

 ruinous parsimony. Yet whenever real ccconomy could be 

 practised, we have regarded it with the most scrupulous atten- 

 'tion. A very great proportion of the expenditures, was for- 

 ced upon us by inexorable necessity. The fruits of them, are, 

 for the most pai't invisible; large disbursements having been 

 inevitably applied to the coffer dams, in all their variet"^/ of ca- 

 sualty and dangerous vicissitude — to the subaqueous, expen-^ 

 sive, and difficult parts of the piers, and the foundations of the 

 abutments. Participating, ourselves, in either the success or 

 failure of the design, we relied on the candor oi' our fellovv' 

 Stockholders. Impressed with a conviction of having acted 

 from motives the most upright, we trusted, in every event, 

 in their sense, and our consciousness, of our''integritv of in- 

 tention, and unremitting regard to our duty. These are all 



