192 SUSPENSION BU1DGES 



used in forming a bridge is generally from two to three inches in cir- 

 cumference, and at least nine or ten times crossed to make it secure. 

 This collection of ropes is traversed by a block of wood hollowed into a 

 semicircular groove, large enough to slide easily along it, and around 

 this block ropes are suspended forming a loop, in which passengers seat 

 themselves, clasping its upper parts with their hands to keep themselves 

 steady ; a line fixed to the wooden block at each end, and extending to 

 each bank, serves to haul it and the passenger attaehed to it from one 

 side of the river to the other. The jhoola (as the bridge is called) at 

 Rhampore was somewhat formidable, for the river trembles beneath in 

 a very awful way, and the ropes, though they decline in the centre to 

 the water, are elevated from thirty to forty feet above it; the space is 

 from ninety to one hundred yards. " It was amusing enough to see several 

 of our low-country attendants,' ' says Frazer, " arming themselves with 

 courage to venture" on this novel mode of transit, and I must confess, that 

 although it was evident that the actual danger was small, it was not 

 without certain uncomfortable feeling that I first launched out to cross 

 the Sutlej. We found, however, that accidents do sometimes occur, and 

 it was scarcely twelve months since a Brahmin, who had come from 

 Cooloo, having loaded the ropes with two great a weight of his goods, 

 and accompanied them himself, fell into the stream, was hurried away, 

 and dashed to pieces." 



SUSPENSION BRIDGES. 



ALTHOOGH, perhaps, the idea of this description of bridge may have 

 been taken from the Chinese, in whose country there are several of the 

 rudest and most unscientific construction, yet it was only about a century 

 ago that they were adopted in this country. The first was over the Tees 

 at Winch, near Durham ; it was constructed of iron wire, and was used by 

 foot passengers only. In 1813 the late Mr. Telford proposed to erect a 

 suspension bridge of three arches, and of two thousand feet long, over 

 the Mersey, to communicate with the Bridgewater Canal. The boldness 

 of the design frightened every body, and it was abandoned, Captain 

 Brown was the first engineer who constructed a suspension bridge, 

 capable of sustaining the heavy weights of carriages, &c. ; this was erected 

 over the Tweed at Kelso, in 1820 ; it is three hundred feet in length by 

 eighteen feet in width. In Paris there is a pretty suspension bridge over 

 the Seine; until 1830 it bore the name of the bridge of the He, but since the 

 " glorious days'' it is called the bridge of Arcole. In the United States 



