CIIAI-. II. OLD LONDON lilMlMiK. 



turiesthat had elapsed since old London Bridge had been 

 erected, the science of bridge-building had made but 

 little progress in England. The principal structures of 

 the sort were of wood. Trees, merely squared, were 

 laid side by side, at right angles with the stream, sup- 

 ported on perpendicular piles, the roadway being planked 

 over and covered with gravel. Old Battersea Bridge 

 was an example of the primitive structures by means 

 of which many of our wide rivers long continued to be 

 crossed. Few were built of stone, and these, of a com- 

 paratively rude kind, were principally situated upon the 

 main lines of road ; but they were usually liable to be 

 swept away by the first heavy flood. During the period 

 referred to, however, the science of construction had 

 made great progress in France, and from the practice of 

 French engineers our best models continued for some 

 time longer to be drawn. Hence, when the sanction of 

 Parliament was at length obtained to a second bridge 

 being built across the Thames, Labelye, the French en- 

 gineer, a native of Switzerland, was employed to design 

 and execute the work. 



It will have been observed that the chief difficulty 

 with the early bridge-builders was in securing proper 

 foundations for their piers. A common practice was to 

 sink baskets of small dimensions, full of stones, in the bed 

 of the river, and on these, when raised above water, the 

 foundations were laid. But where the bottom was com- 

 posed of loose, shifting material, such as sand, it will be 

 obvious that a firm basis could scarcely be secured by 

 such a method. The plan adopted by Labelye, though 

 considere Ian improvement at the time, was even inferior 

 to tlie method employed by Peter of Colchurch in found- 

 ing the piers of old London Bridge in the 13th cen- 

 tury. For, clumsy though the latter structure was, it 

 stood more than six hundred years, whilst Westminster 

 Bridge had not been erected a century before it exhibited 

 signs of giving way. 



