A Book of Bridges | Project Gutenberg

Girders, there are three types or classes of bridge: the girder, the arched, and the suspended. Girders may be of various materials; wrought iron, cast iron, and wood are chiefly used. Professor Fleeming Jenkin describes with apt brevity the essential difference between the three classes of bridge. “In all forms of the suspension bridge the supporting structure is extended by the stress due to the load; in all forms of the arch the supporting structure (i.e. the ring of voussoirs) is compressed by the stress due to the load; and in all forms of the beam or girder the material is partly extended and partly compressed by the flexure which it undergoes as it bends under the load. Thus when a beam of wood carrying a load bends, the upper side of the beam is thereby shortened and the fibres compressed, while the lower side of the beam is lengthened and the fibres extended.” So, too, in a girder of metal. In some bridges, as in the High Level Bridge at Newcastle, the girder principle is united to bowstring arches of metal, but a true girder is less expensive and lighter, 80.

Gizeh, at, in the Great Pyramid of Menkaura, there is a very early pointed arch, 155-6.
Glaciers, in their relation to rock-basins and rock-bridges, 152.
Glanville, Gilbert de, Bishop of Rochester, 1185-1215, built a small chapel at the Strood end of Rochester Bridge, 245.
Glastonbury, its lake-village a good example of prehistoric bridge-building, 21, 137 et seq.
Gothic Architecture, her genius described, 152-3.
Grandison, Bishop of Exeter, granted indulgences to those who helped in the building of Bideford Bridge, Devon, 305 footnote;
See also “Indulgences.”
Gratianus, Pons, another name for the Pons Cestius, 196.
Gray, Walter de, Archbishop of York, between 1215 and 1256, rebuilt the Ouse Bridge, preserving some portions of the Norman Chapel, 242.
Hadrian, destroyed Trajan’s Bridge over the Danube, 129;
and built the Pons Ælius at Rome, 194.
Hall, Lady Jane, in 1566, contributed a hundred pounds to repair the Ouse Bridge at York, 242.
Hamburg Merchants, the York Society of, after the Reformation, used the chapel on the Ouse Bridge as an exchange, 242.
Hand-guns, 333.
Handicraft, the first public school, 118;
has never had a standard of uniform merit, 121;
its indebtedness to Nature’s models, 3, 4, 6, and Chapter II.
Hand-made Weapons preceded hand-made bridges, probably, 110.
Harold’s Bridge at Waltham Abbey, 162.
Haunches of a Bridge, 265 footnote.
Henri IV, Pont, at Châtellerault, 331-2;
see also the illustration facing page 332.
Henry III, of England, and his wife, rob Old London Bridge of her revenues, 49-51.
Henry V, of England, in the fourth year of his reign Abingdon Bridge was built, 251.
Henry VIII, during and after his reign bridge chapels were desecrated, 225-6, 230-3.
Heralds of Man, 113 et seq.
Herodotus, on the canal begun by Necho II, 17 footnote;
mentions the bridge at Babylon over the Euphrates, 274.
Hexham, Smeaton’s Bridge at, 339.
High Bridge, Lincoln, 221-2.
Higherford Bridge, near Colne, attributed to the Romans, 305 footnote.
High Level Bridge at Newcastle, a “scientific” adventure with an amusing history, 79-80.
Highway Boards, their inefficiency in England, 43, 230.
Hindrances to Bridge-building, 250-1, 254-5, 264.
Hoen-ho, the River, and the bridge at Pulisangan, 310-13.
Hoogesluis, the, at Amsterdam, a strumpet of a bridge, 323.
Horace mentions the Pons Fabricius as attractive to suicides, 195-6.
Hosking, writer on bridges, 143 footnote, 309, 317, 325-6.
Housed Bridges, 208, 213-15, 216-24, 225.
Houtum-Schindler, Sir A., on the Pul-i-Kaisar at Shushter in Persia, 202-4.
Howell’s “Londinopolis,” 216-17.
Human Beings offered as sacrifices to rivers, 64, 65 et seq.
Human Gunpowder, 23, 352.
Human Initiative, nothing else in Nature is less uncommon, 123.
Humboldt used the pendulous bridges in Peru, 148.
Iberians, their stonecraft, 100, 102, 104;
their cult of ancestors, 104;
the world-wide influence of their genius, 125 et seq.
Icononzo, Rock-Bridges of, 151.
Iguanodon, asleep on a Nature-made bridge, 3.
Illinois and St. Louis Bridge, 352-3.
Imitation among men in societies, 55;
stimulated by Nature-made bridges, 55;
its dead routine, 110;
see Chapter II.
Indulgences granted by the mediæval Church to aid the upkeep of roads and bridges, 40, 305 footnote.
Industrial Bridges, 46.
Industrialism, To-day’s, is a very complex phase of war, 35, 36, 46, 48, 333, 352.
Industrial Warfare, 33, 34, 35, 36, 46, 48, 333, 352.
Inferiority of Old English Bridges, 9, 44, 256-8, 281, 294-5.
Inigo Jones, his bridge at Llanrwst, 282, and footnote.
Invasions of England, 20;
the influence of invasions in the rise and fall of nations, 22.
Iremonger, Richard Fannande, writer of the Ballad of Abingdon Bridge, 251.
Irish Bridges, 45.
Iron Age, its approximate date in England, 21.
Iron Bars in Chinese bridges, 314.
Iron Bridges, Chinese, 344-5;
European, 144 footnote, 348 et seq.;
American, 352 et seq.
Iron Cramps used in bridges, Roman, 172-3;
Babylonian, 274-5;
modern, 283.

Hosking has many good remarks on the subject of cramps and joggles. He says (p. 208): “It is very desirable that all the archstones of a large and flat arch should be dowel-joggled in the beds; but as the usual dowel-joggle cannot be introduced with the key-course, plugs of proportionate size must be used instead, and the stones may, besides, be cramped together. In arches of small size, or in large ones of quick sweep, joggling may not be so desirable as in those of large size and flat sweep; though it is to be understood that in any case both joggles and cramps should be considered as surplusage, and as precautions merely, to counteract the effect of any imperfections in the work from want of fulness in any of the stones in an arch, or otherwise. In building London Bridge iron bars were let into the back ends or tails of the archstones, and run with lead as cramps or transverse ties in several courses, and they do not appear to have produced any injurious effect, though it may be questioned how far they are of any use. They ought not to be of any use.” Viollet-le-Duc went further than this; he regarded iron cramps in a stone bridge as likely to be injurious.

Isembert, the French bridge-builder who undertook the finishing of London Bridge after the death of Peter Colechurch, 218.
Isfahan, Persia, the Bridges of, 44, 187, 212, 213, 214, 215, 268-70.
“Ithe,” suggested pronoun for any bridge which is not masculine enough to be called “he,” nor neutral enough to be described as “it,” 294.
“Itshe,” suggested pronoun for any bridge which is not feminine enough to be called “she,” nor neutral enough to be described as “it.” Criticism of art would be aided greatly by these pronouns. For instance, our poets of to-day give us a great deal of inspiration that belongs to the “itshe” class, 294.
Jackson, O. M., the Rev., on Chinese bridges, 126-7, 145, 248, 315, 347.
Janiculine Bridge, Rome, 197.
Jebb’s “By Desert Ways to Baghdad,” 202.
Jenkin, Professor Fleeming, on the elliptical arches in the Bridge of Avignon, 81;
on Trajan’s bridge over the Danube, 130;
on American timber bridges, 143;
on the defects of metal suspension bridges, 144 footnote;
on Colechurch and Bénézet, 217;
on cofferdams, 253 footnote;
on the insufficient width of New London Bridge, 257;
on the covered bridge at Pavia, 308;
on Telford’s bridge at Craigellachie, 349.
Jhelum, River, in Kashmír, and its primitive bridges, 71, 72, 73.
Jolly Miller’s Bridge over the Dee, 305 footnote.
Jones, Inigo, his bridge at Llanrwst, 282, and footnote.
Jusserand, J. J., his book on “English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages,” 40, 49, 50, 98, 99, 100.
Kapellbrucke, Lucerne, 292.
Kâredj Bridge, Persia, 265-6.
Kashmír Bridges, 71, 72, 73, 160, 161.
Kershaw, S. Wayland, the late, on bridge chapels, 243 et seq.
Kettlethorpe Park, 226.
Khaju, the Pul-i-, at Isfahan, 213, 214, 215, 216.
Kien-ning-fu, in the province of Fo-Kien, China, its three handsome bridges mentioned by Marco Polo, 128.
Kilburne, Richard, and his “Survey of Kent,” 244.
Kingsley, Charles, his visit to the Pont du Gard, 170-2.

Kircher, Athanasius, German traveller and philosopher, b. 1602—d. 1680, his book on China, translated into French by Dalquié, 314, 345, and footnote.

Kirkby Lonsdale Bridge, attributed to the Devil, 93.
Knolles, Sir R., in 1387, helped to build Rochester Bridge, 244.
Kreuznach, on the Nahe, Prussia, its old bridge with quaint houses, 208, and the illustration facing p. 208.
Kurdistan, primitive bridges, 73, 74, 75, 76, 272.
Labelye’s Westminster Bridge, see “Westminster Bridge.”

Lacer, Caius Julius, Roman architect, and builder of Trajan’s Bridge over the Tagus at Alcántara, 121, 184, 190, 344. He was buried on the left bank quite close to his bridge, 184, a romantic circumstance, like the burial of Bénézet and Colechurch in their bridge chapels.

Laellenkoenig, a grotesque head that used to decorate the tower on Bâle Bridge, 306, 307.
Lake Dwellings and Villages, the highest form of prehistoric bridge-building, 21;
how evolved from Nature’s object-lessons, 111;
primitive shop-bridges probably descended from them, as in Kashmír, 72, 73;
the Glastonbury Lake Village, 136 et seq.
Lambèse, in Algeria, famous aqueduct, 176.
Lancashire Bridges, primitive, 55, 60, 61;
Roman or of Roman origin, 162-3, 263;
mediæval, 250 footnote.
Lancaster Bridge, built in the reign of King John, 250 footnote.
Landlords, Mediæval, in their relation to the trinoda necessitas, 40 et seq.
Lankester, Sir Ray, on the approximate date of Palæolithic art, 62;
on the eagle-beaked flint tools unearthed from Pliocene deposits on the East Anglian Coast, 120 et seq.;
on the approximate date of the Neolithic Period, 136.
Laroque, the Bridges of, near Cahors, 300;
see also the colour plate facing page 300.
“Late Celti” Art was practised in the Glastonbury Lake Village as in the Hunsbury Camp, near Northampton, 137.
Lava, from volcanoes, has made slab-bridges, 124.
Lavaur, Pont de, famous French bridge of the eighteenth century, 310.
Law, Mediæval, and its attitude to roads and bridges, 40 et seq.

Law, Modern, in Great Britain law prescribes minimum dimensions for the over and under bridges of railways; but it takes no notice at all of the military considerations which can never be wisely disconnected from the circulation of traffic along roads and over bridges. An over bridge is one in which a road goes over a railway; an under bridge is one in which a road goes under a railway. Both are exceedingly vulnerable, yet the law centres all its attention on details that concern their size, not on details that concern their protection from violence. Over Bridges.—Width: turnpike road, 35 feet; other public carriage road, 25 feet; private road, 12 feet. Span over two lines (narrow gauge), generally about 26 feet; head room, 14 feet 6 inches above outer rail. Under Bridges.—Spans: turnpike road, 35 feet; other public road, 25 feet; private road, 12 feet. Head room: turnpike road, 12 feet at springing of arch, and 16 feet throughout a breadth of 12 feet in the middle; for public road, 12 feet, 15 feet, and 10 feet in the same places; private road, 14 feet for 9 feet in the middle; for exceptions the Acts must be studied.

Law of Battle, the Universal, vii, 3, 4, 14-52. See “Battle, Law of.”
Laws should get rid of stereotyped customs and conventions in order to enforce progress on dilatory mankind, 76, 77.
Leeds Bridge had a chapel, 231.
Legends on Devil’s Bridges, 65-70.
Libourne, Pont de, on the Dordogne, its cost, 356.
Life everywhere has fed on lives, 3, 4, 37, 38;
how lives are sacrificed in the enterprises of “peace,” so-called, vii, 17, 34 footnote.
Limousin, French Bridges of the, their cutwaters, 262.
Lincoln, High Bridge at, an old housed bridge restored thirteen years ago, 221-2.
Lincoln, New Port at, a Roman arch, 162.
Lintel-stone Bridges of Lancashire, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64.
Lion Gate at Mycenae, belonging to the Heroic Age, 157, 158.
Lions, Decorative, at Mycenae, 158;
on a Roman bridge, 177;
on Chinese bridges, 127, 311, 313, 315.
Lister, Lord, his genius came so very late in the history of man that it mocked all the dead generations of perhaps a million years, 31.
Literary Projects, their division into two classes, v.
“Liu Soh,” a Chinese suspension bridge, 145.
Llangollen Bridge, 258 footnote, and 305 footnote.
Llanrwst, Inigo Jones’s Bridge at, 282, and footnote.
Lockyer, Sir Norman, on the date of Stonehenge, 126.
London Bridge, Old, robbed of her revenues by Henry III and his “dear wife,” 49-51;
her history, 216-21;
often ravaged by fire, 218-19;
size of the arches and piers, 220-1;
she was an arcaded dam to deepen the water for shipping on the eastern side, 220;
her chapel, 216-17;
diverting the course of the Thames while she was being built, 253-4;
her drawbridge, 260-1;
her gradual destruction, 219-20.
London Bridge, New, begun on March 15th, 1824, 219-20;
her scale is too small to be in accord with a tremendous city and a vast old river, 256-7;
the span of her finest arch, 309;
much money wasted in hammer-dressing the masonry, 325-6;
her length and her total cost, 357.
“Londinopolis,” Howell’s, 216.
London’s Attitude to Bridges, past and present, 49-51, 256, 325, 326, 327.
Lostwithiel Bridge, 305 footnote.
Loyang Bridge, China, 126-7.
Ludgate Hill, London, its detestable railway bridge, 326.
Ludlow Bridge had a chapel, 231.
Luynes, Remains of a Roman Aqueduct at, 176.
Lydstep Arch on the coast of Pembroke, a Nature-made archway that resembles a bridge, 150 footnote.
Lyon, Roman Aqueduct at, 176, 213;
at Lyon, in 1755, an attempt was made to build an iron bridge, but it failed, 348.