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Art. VIII . — Account of a Bridge of Suspension made of Hide 
Ropes in Chili. By Captain Basil Hall, F.It. S. Com- 
municated by the Author. 
Over the river Maypo, at no great distance from the city of 
Santiago, the capital of Chili, there is thrown a bridge of a cu- 
rious construction. It consists of a roadway, four feet broad, of 
planks laid crosswise, with their ends resting on straight ropes, 
made of twisted thongs of undressed bullocks’ hides, which are 
suspended by means of short vertical lines, about as thick as 
the little finger, to a set of stout ropes drawn across the valley 
from bank to bank. These 'strong sustaining cords are six in 
number, three at each side of the bridge, and hang in flat 
curves, one above another. They are firmly secured to the 
rock, at the top of the bank on one side, at the height of twenty 
or thirty feet above the bed of the stream ; but on the opposite 
side, where the bank is low, they are made to pass over a high 
frame- work of strong timbers, the nature of which will be more 
readily understood by a reference to Plate IV., than by any 
description. The consequence of the different elevation of the 
two banks is, that the bridge has a very considerable slope, — a 
circumstance which adds to its picturesque effect, while it takes 
little from its utility, as it is not intended for wheel-carriages. 
The clear space, from the frame-work on one side to the face 
of the rock on the other, is 123 feet. The materials are very 
elastic, and the bridge waves up and down, and from side to 
side, in so alarming a manner, that a stranger is glad to dis- 
mount and lead his horse across, or, as we preferred doing, at 
the recommendation of our guides, drive it before him. 
It will be apparent, at the first glance at the Plate, that there 
is a remarkable similarity between this hide-bridge and those of 
iron with which we are now so familiar in this country. A 
more careful inspection will only show, that the resemblance ex- 
tends even to minute particulars, one of which is very striking, 
— I mean the manner in which the weight of the road is distri- 
buted over the suspending or curved ropes. It will be observed, 
that the first of the small vertical fines is attached to the up- 
per rope, the next is fastened to the middle one, and the last to 
the lowest rope. This series is repeated along the whole length, 
exactly as we see in the bridge of suspension across the Tweed, 
and in the pier at Newhaven, and in other similar structures. 
