A book of bridges

Transcriber’s Note:
In Memory of Chris Curnow (1937-2023) the Project Manager at Distributed Proofreaders who selected this book, and more than 2200 others, to be preserved as free digital transcriptions by Project Gutenberg.

PONT ST. BÉNÉZET OVER THE RHÔNE AT AVIGNON, BUILT BETWEEN THE YEARS 1177 AND 1185
A BOOK OF BRIDGES
BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A. AND WALTER SHAW SPARROW
LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXV
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND

HISTORIC VITRY-LE-FRANÇOIS, ON THE MARNE
Literary projects may be put in two classes. Some are like steamers that go in a regulated course direct to their destinations, while others tack here and there like sailing ships, governed by a zigzag progress.
The subject of bridges belongs to this latter class. For five-and-twenty years I have tried to order it into a methodised hobby. As well try to teach a hive of honey-bees never to visit certain flowers in a garden, and never to fly beyond certain pathways and hedges. Yet a writer cannot help rebelling when his chosen theme declines to play in the game of authorship, and deviates from many careful plans which are made for its benefit. Every chapter in this book has been rewritten eight or ten times, yet my sailing ship has not become an Atlantic liner.