&S B R I 
parliament: and the inhabitants of the whole county can¬ 
not, of their own authority, change a bridge from one 
place to another. If a man has toll for men and cattle paf- 
fing over a bridge, he is to repair it; and toll may be 
paid in thefe cafes by prefcription or ftatute. 
Rujken BRIDGE, (pont dejonc,) is made of large (heaves 
©f rufhes, covered with boards or planks : they ferve for 
eroding ground that is boggy, miry, or rotten. The Ro¬ 
mans had alfo a fort of fubitaneous bridges, made by the 
foldi'ers, of boats, or fometimes of calks, leathern bottles, 
or bags, or even of bullocks bladders blown up and fatten¬ 
ed together, called afeogafri. M. Couplet gives the fi¬ 
gure of a portable bridge 200 feet long, eafily taken afun- 
der and put together again, and which forty men may car¬ 
ry. Frezier fpeaks of a lingular kind of bridge at Apu- 
rirha in Lima, made of ropes, formed of the bark of a tree. 
Pendent or Hanging BRIDGES, called alfo philofophical 
bridges, are thofe not fupported either by pods or pillars, 
but hung at large in the air, only fupported at the two ends 
or butments. Inftances of fitch bridges are given by Pal¬ 
ladio and others. Dr. Wallis gives the defign of a tim¬ 
ber-bridge feventy feet long, without any, pillars, which 
may be uleful in fome places where pillars cannot be con¬ 
veniently ereCted. Dr. Plot affures us, that there was 
formerly a large bridge over the caftle-ditch at Tutbury 
in Stafford (hire, made of pieces of timber, none above a 
yard long, and yet not fupported underneath either with 
pillars or archwork, or any fort of prop whatever. 
Drazy-BRIDGE, one that is faftened with hinges at one 
end only, fo that the other may be drawn up ; in which 
cafe, the bridge (lands upright, to hinder the paflage over 
a ditch or moat. 
Ftying- BRIDGE, (pons duSlorius,) an appellation given 
to a bridge made of pontoons, leather boats, hollow beams, 
calks, or the like, laid on a river, and covered with planks, 
for the paflage of an army. 
Flying.BR 1 DGE, (pont volant,) a bridge compofed of one 
or two boats joined together by a fort of flooring, and fur- 
rounded with a rail or baluflrade ; having alfo one or more 
mafts, to which is faflened a cable, fupported, at proper 
diftances, by boats, and extended to an anchor, to which 
the other end is faftened, in the middle of the water : by 
which contrivance, the bridge becomes moveable, like a 
pendulum, from one (ide of the river to the other, without 
any other help titan the rudder. Such bridges fometimes 
alfo conflfl of two (lories, for the quicker paflage of a 
great number of men, or that both infantry and cavalry 
may pafs at the fame time. 
BRIDGES of Boats, are made of copper or wooden 
boats, faftened with flakes or anchors, and laid over with 
planks. One of the moil celebrated inventions of Julius 
Crefar was the expeditious making a bridge of boats over 
the Rhine. Modern armies carry copper or tin boats, 
called pontoons, to be in readinefs for making bridges; fe- 
veral of the(e being joined lide by fide till they reach acrofs 
the river, and planks laid ovec them, make a plane for 
the men to march on. There are fine bridges of boats at 
Beaucaire'and Rouen, which rife and fall with the water; 
and that at Seville is faid to exceed them both. The 
bridge of boats at Rouen, built in lieu of the (lately (lone 
bridge erected there by the Romans, is reprefented as the 
wonder of the prefent age. It always floats, and rifes and 
falls with the tide, or as the land-waters fill the river. It 
is near 300 yards long, and is paved with (lone, juft as the 
ftreets are; carriages with the greateft burdens go over it 
with eafe, and men and horfes with fafety, though there 
are no rails on either hand. The boats are very firm, and 
moored with ftrong chains, and the whole well looked af¬ 
ter and ■conftantly repaired, though now very old. 
Floating- BRIDGE, is ordinarily made of two final 1 
bridges, laid one over the other, in filch a manner as that 
the uppermoft ftretches and runs out, by the help of cer¬ 
tain cords running through pullies placed along the (ides 
of the under-bridge, which pufh it forwards till the end 
of it joins the placejn is defigned to be fixed on. When 
D G E. 
thefe two bridges are (tretched out to their full length, fo 
that the two middle ends 'meet, they are not to be above 
four or five fathoms long; becaufe, if longer, they will 
break. Their chief ufe is for furprifing out-works, or 
polls that have but narrow moats. In the memoirs of the 
royal academy of fciences we find an ingenious contrivance 
of a floating bridge, which lays itfelf on the other fide of 
the river. 
BRIDGE, Natural, implies a bridge not conftruCted by 
art, but the refult of fome operation of nature. A moll 
wonderful bridge of this kind is deferibed by Mr. Jeffer- 
fon in his State of Virginia. It is on the alcent of a hill, 
which feems to have been cloven through its length by 
fome great convuluon. The fiflure, juft at the bridge, is 
by fome deemed 270 feet deep, by others only 205. It is 
about forty-five feet wide at the bottom, and ninety feet at 
the top ; this of courfe determines the length of the bridge, 
and its height from the water. Its breadth in the middle 
is about fixty feet, but more at the ends, and the thick- 
nefs of the mafs at the fummit of the arch about forty 
feet. A part of this thicknefs is conftituted by a coat of 
earth, which gives growth to many large trees. The re- 
fidue, with the hill on both Tides, is one folid rock of 
lime-done. The arch approaches the ferni-elliptical form; 
but the larger axis of the ellipfis, which would be the 
cord of the arch, is many times longer than the tranfverle. 
Though the Tides of this bridge are provided in fome parts 
with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet few have refolution to 
look over into the abyfs. If the view from the top, how¬ 
ever, be intolerable, that from below is delightful in an 
equal extreme. It is impoflible for the emotions arifing 
from the fublime to be felt beyond what they are here: 
from the view of fo beautiful an arch, fo elevated, fo 
light, and fpringing as it were up to heaven, the rapture 
of the fpeclator is really indefcribable! The fiflure con¬ 
tinuing narrow, deep, and ftraight, for a confiderable dis¬ 
tance above and below the bridge, opens a (hort but very 
pleaftng view of the North-mountain on one fide, and Blue- 
ridge on the other, at the diftance of about five miles 
each. This bridge is in the county of Rockbridge, to 
which it has given name, and affords a public and com¬ 
modious paflage over a valley, which cannot be crofted 
elfewhete for a confiderable diftance. Don Ulloa men¬ 
tions a break, (imilar to this, in the province of Angaraez, 
in South America. It is from fixteen to twenty-two feet 
wide, hi feet deep, and near two miles long. 
BRIDGE, f. in gunnery, the two pieces of timber 
which go between the two tranfums of a gun-carriage, on 
which the bed refts. 
To BRIDGE, v. a. To raife a bridge over.any place : 
Came to the fea ; and over Hellefpont 
Bridging his way, Europe with Afia join’d. Milton. 
BRIDGE-HAMP'TON, a town of United America,, 
in the (late of New York; fituated in Long Ifland. 
BRIDGE'MASTER, f. There are bridgemafters of 
London-bridge, chofen by the citizens, who have certain 
fees and profits belonging to their office, for the fuperin- 
tendance and care of the faid bridge, &c. Lex Londin. 283. 
BRIDGEND', a town of South Wales, in the county 
of Glamorgan, fituated on the river Ogmore. The foil 
near it is exceedingly fertile and well cultivated. A 
woollen manufacture is fet on foot, under the patronage 
and protection of the fociety inftituted for the promotion 
of agriculture, manufactures, See. It has a good weekly 
market on Saturdays, and two fairs annuallv, viz. Nov. 17, 
and on Holy Thurfday, for cattle, See. The town is po¬ 
pulous, and in a (late of improvement. It is twenty miles 
weft of Cardiff, and 181 weft of London. 
BRIDGE'NORTH, a large borough town in Shrop- 
fhirc, diftant twenty miles from Shrewfbury, and 135 from 
London. It is a very ancient place, faid to have been built 
in 382, by Ethelfleda, queen of the Mercians, and widow 
of king Ethelred. It was walled round by Robert de Be- 
iefme, fon of Robert de Montgomery, who likewife added 
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