G2 HEXHAM BRIDGE. PART VI. 



a roadway twenty feet wide over all. The design is 

 similar in most respects to those of the bridges previously 

 erected by the same engineer at Perth and Coldstream ; 

 and the beauty of its situation, in the immediate vicinity 

 of Duff House, the mansion of the Earl of Fife, and its 

 noble surrounding grounds, renders it an object of even 

 greater pictorial interest. 1 



The only peculiarity to be noted in the designs of 

 Smeaton's bridges, is the circular perforations left in the 

 spandrels of the arches, somewhat after the method 

 adopted by Edwards at Pont-y-Pridd, and in several 

 Continental bridges. This had the effect of lightening 

 the weight which pressed upon the piers and their 

 foundations, and was doubtless an advantage. He also 

 invariably adopted segmental or elliptical in preference 

 to semi-circular arches, probably because of the less cost 

 of bridges after the former design. Much ability was 

 displayed by our engineer in the designing of his centres, 

 which have been much admired for their strength as 

 well as economy of material. 



Smeaton was much less successful in the construction 

 of his only English bridge than he was with his Scotch 

 ones. He was called upon to furnish the design for a 

 structure across the Tyne at Hexham, in 1777, and a 

 very handsome bridge of nine arches was erected after it 

 under the superintendence of Mr. Pickernell, the resi- 

 dent engineer. It had scarcely been finished ere a sub- 

 sidence in the foundations of one of the piers took place, 

 which was attempted to be remedied by sheet-piling 

 and filling up the cavities in the river's bed with rough 

 rubble-stones. But it appeared that the foundations 

 had been imperfectly laid from the beginning. In 

 the spring of 1782 a violent spate or flood swept 

 down the Tyne, and in the course of a few hours 

 Smeaton's beautiful Hexham Bridge lay a wreck in the 



See engraving at p. 2. 



