CHAP. XIX. THE BRIDGE FINISHED AND OPENED. 



439 



in due course. On the 5th of March, Mr. Stephenson 

 put the last rivet in the last tube, and passed through 

 the completed bridge, accompanied by about a thousand 

 persons, drawn by three locomotives. The bridge was 

 opened for public traffic on the 18th of March. The 

 cost of the whole work was 23 4,45 O/. 





BRITANNIA BRIDGE. [By Fercival SkHtnn. after his original Drains.] 



The Britannia Bridge is one of the most remarkable 

 monuments of the enterprise and skill of the present 

 century. Robert Stephenson was the master spirit of 

 the undertaking. To him belongs the merit of first 

 seizing the ideal conception of the structure best adapted 

 to meet the necessities of the case ; and of selecting the 



