358 



WEAR BRIDGE, SUNDERLAND. 



PART VIII. 



Paris to join the " Friends of Man," leaving his bridge 

 in the hands of his creditors. His democratic associates 

 having incarcerated him in the Luxembourg prison, he 

 lay there for eleven months, but finally escaped to 

 America. In the mean time the materials had been pur- 

 chased for erection over the river Wear, at Sunderland, 

 where the second iron bridge in England was erected, 

 after a design by Mr. T. Wilson, in the year 1796. Mr. 

 Robert Stephenson has characterised this bridge as " a 

 structure which, as regards its proportions and the small 

 quantity of material employed in its construction, will 

 probably remain unrivalled." l Indeed, it was long- 

 regarded as the greatest triumph of the art. Its span 



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WEAR BRIDGE, AT SUJNDERLAND. [By Percival Skelton. ] 



' Encyclopedia Britannica.' Art. : Iron Bridges. 



