Improvement in the Construction of Bridges, ^c. 287 



man, and rendered subservient to his wants and happiness. The 

 bowels of the earth and the fathomless ocean, have alike been 

 made to pour forth their treasures at his bidding. He has navi- 

 gated the sea and the air, and made the inanimate objects of na- 

 ture perform the labor that would have otherwise devolved upon 

 his own hands. He has even, by his inventions, contemned the 

 drudgery of personal locomotion, and caused himself to be car- 

 ried, from point to point, upon the face of the earth and the 

 waters, by inanimate agents, " with the rapidity of the wind ;" 

 while he luxuriously reclining, as though quiescent, drinks in 

 new draughts of knowledge from the great fountain of the press, 

 at once the offspring and parent of his intelligence. He is indeed, 

 " lord of creation ;" and all nature, as though daily more sensible 

 of the conquest, is progressively making less and less resistance 

 to his dominion. 



The great bridge across James river, at Richmond, for the ac- 

 commodation of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, may 

 justly be considered as one of the greatest works of its kind in 

 this country, or perhaps in the world. There are longer bridges 

 of less altitude, and higher bridges of shorter span ; but when 

 the altitude and length of span of this bridge are taken collect- 

 ively, there is, perhaps, not its equal in the world. 



The location of the bridge is across the falls of the James river, 

 a few hundred yards above tide water, where the velocity of the 

 current is exceedingly great. It is constructed of substantial lat- 

 tices, upon lofty granite piers, with a floor upon the summit of 

 the lattice frame. The stoutness of the flooring corresponds with 

 the general strength of the design, and it is rendered water and 

 fire proof, by a strong coat of pitch and sand. The entire length 

 of the span of the bridge is 2,900 feet, and the span between 

 the piers 160 feet. The entire width of the floor is 22^ feet, 

 (wide enough for a double railroad track,) being wider than, and 

 projecting over the lattice-frame, 2^ feet on each side; the frame- 

 work is, therefore, 17^^ feet wide, on the top of the piers. The 

 piers are 18 in number, founded in the rapids, upon the solid bed 

 of granite rock that lies beneath. The elevation of the piers 

 above common water is 40 feet, and their dimensions 4 by 18 

 feet at the top, increasing one foot in width and one foot in thick- 

 ness, for every 12 feet in the descending scale. The masonry 

 consists of regular courses of heavy stone, hewn to a joint on 



