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buildings,but to none more than to bridges; 

 and when all the circumstances of an arch- 

 ed bridge over a broad and rapid river, from 

 the foundation to the last finishing, are con- 

 sidered, it may be reckoned among the no- 

 blest efforts of architecture ; uniting, per- 

 haps, in a higher degree than any other 

 building, beauty, grandeur, utility, and 

 real, as well as apparent difficulty of ex- 

 ecution. 



The two general divisions of architecture 

 in England, the Grecian and the Gothic, 

 are as strongly marked in bridges as in other 

 buildings. In the old bridges that were built 

 in the neighbourhood of castles and abbeys, 

 and probably about the same period, the 

 pointed arches, and the strong projecting 

 buttresses, while they accord with similar 

 forms in the edifices, to which those bridges 

 were in some measure appendages, gave to 

 them a remarkable appearance of firmness 

 and resistance to floods, with a peculiar 

 depth and opposition of light and shadow. 

 This agreement between the principal build- 

 ing, whether a castle, an abbey, or a great 



