('HAP. XII. TELFORD'S PROPOSED RUNCORN BRIDGE. 447 



of the case were best to be met. The only practicable 

 plan, he thought, was a bridge constructed on the prin- 

 ciple of suspension. Expedients of this kind had long 

 been employed in India and America, where wide rivers 

 were crossed by means of bridges formed of ropes and 

 chains ; and even in this country a suspension bridge, 

 though of a very rude kind, had long been in use near 

 Middleton on the Tees, where, by means of two common 

 chains stretched across the river, upon which a footway 

 of boards was laid, the colliers were enabled to pass 

 from their cottages to the colliery on the opposite bank. 

 Captain (afterwards Sir Samuel Brown) took out a patent 

 for forming suspension bridges in 1817 ; but it appears 

 that Telford's attention had been directed to the subject 

 before this time, as he was first consulted respecting the 

 Runcorn Bridge in the year 1814, when he proceeded to 



..INK OP TELFORD'S PROPOSED BRIDGE AT RUNCORN 



make an elaborate series of experiments on the tenacity 

 of wrought iron bars, with the object of employing this 

 material in his proposed structure. After he had made 

 upwards of two hundred tests of malleable iron of various 

 qualities, he proceeded to prepare his design of a bridge, 

 which consisted of a central opening of 1000 feet span, 

 and two side openings of 500 feet each, supported by pyra- 

 mids of masonry placed near the low water lines. The 

 roadway was to be 30 feet wide, divided into one central 

 footway and two distinct carriageways of 12 feet each. 

 At the same time he prepared and submitted a model of 

 the central opening, which satisfactorily stood the various 

 strains which were applied to it. This Runcorn design 

 of 1814 was of a very magnificent character, perhaps 

 superior even to that of the Menai Suspension Bridge, 



