A book of bridges

by Walter Shaw Sparrow

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].

Machicolations, openings between the corbels that support a projecting parapet, or in the floor of a gallery or the roof of a portal, for shooting or dropping missiles and boiling liquids upon assailants attacking the base of the walls. They were used in the defence of old bastille bridges, and silly modern engineers have copied them as dummy ornaments with which to decorate trumpery defenceless gateways and towers, [275], [323].

• Machine-Worship, or the worship of machines, [78], [79], [341].
• Magalhanes, P., on the Chinese bridge of Pulisangan, [311] [footnote].
• Marcian Aqueduct, [189], and [footnote].
• Marco Polo, on Chinese bridges in the thirteenth century, [128], [210], [310], [313].
• Marnun, Pul-i, at Isfahan, [212].
• Martineau, James, on the law of battle, [36].
• Martorell Bridge in Spain, [27] [footnote].
• Masons’ Marks, Roman, [171].
• Mathematicians, how they interfered in bridge-building of the 18th century, [337].
• Mathilda, Queen, twelfth century, builds and endows Bow Bridge, [98].
• Meaux, the Miller’s Bridge at, [209], [223].
• Mediæval Church, she protected bridges, [40], [51], [96], [207];
• see also [“Bridge Chapels.”]
• Men of Trade in their relation to bridges, [77], [78] et seq., [326] et seq., [349] et seq., [357-8].
• Men, Ordinary, are the mimics and mechanics of genius, [58].
• Menai Bridge, [344].
• Ménard, M., historian of Nîmes, [174].
• Menkaura, Pyramid of, at Gizeh, has a pointed arch, [156].
• Mérida, in Spain, her Roman aqueducts and bridges, [181], [182], [200], [285 footnote].
• Meroe, in a Pyramid at, there is a semicircular arch composed of voussoirs, [160].
• Metal Bridges, Chinese, [344-5];
• European, [144 footnote], [348] et seq.;
• American, [352] et seq.
• Methods, New, in Military War, their effects on bridge-building, [vii], [viii], [15], [358], [359].
• Michelangelo, wrongly reputed to be the author of the Rialto, [211].
• Middle Ages, [26], [49], [50], [83];
• see also [“Bridge Chapels,”] [“War-Bridges,”] [“Mediæval Church,”] and the Gothic bridges drawn by Frank Brangwyn.
• Military Bridges, see [“War-Bridges.”]
• Military Forethought, the need of it in bridges, [vii], [viii], [15], [238-9], [244], [259], [260], [261], [272], [328], [331], [334], [337], [350], [352], [355-9].
• Mill, John Stuart, on the law of battle in Nature, [37].
• Millau, [209], and illustration facing page [352].
• Mill Bridges, [209], [223], [224];
• see also the picture of Millau Bridge facing page [352].
• Milvius, Pons, ancient name of the Ponte Molle, [197].
• Mimicry, or imitation, frees the large human mind from the labour pains of thinking, [105].
• Mimics, Nature’s School for, see [Chapter II].
• Miocene Age and Nature-made bridges, [113-14].
• Modern Bridges, see the [last chapter];
• also [“Metal Bridges,”] [“London Bridge, New,”] [“Railway Bridges,”] etc.
• Modern Spirit, its intemperate vulgarity, [13], [48], [270].
• Molle, Ponte, modern name for the Pons Milvius, [197].
• Money bequeathed to bridges, [227], [233].
• Monks of Strata Florida built the Devil’s Bridge at Aberystwyth, [67].
• Monmouth, Monnow Bridge at, a fortified work, [93], [280], [281].
• Monnow Bridge at Monmouth, [93], [280], [281].
• Montauban, the Pont des Consuls at, [27], [254-7].
• Monzie, near Crieff, in Perthshire, a bridge there similar to Harold’s Bridge at Waltham Abbey, [163].
• Moore, Sir John, his relation to Spanish bridges, [29 footnote], [334-5].
• Moors in Spain, their influence on architecture, [28], [29].
• More, Sir Thomas, his decapitated head was displayed on Old London Bridge, [261].
• Morston, Hamo de, in the story of Old Shoreham Bridge, [43] et seq.
• Moselle Bridge at Coblentz, [260].
• Mother-Ideas in human history, [56], [57], [58];
• the earliest in the evolution of bridges, [56], [57];
• they are phases of strife, [59], [60];
• see also [“Genius.”]
• Mud, its use in humble architecture probably borrowed from birds, [111], and [footnote].
• Munro, Robert, M.A., M.D., etc., his valuable book on “Archaeology and False Antiquities,” [21].
• Murchison, Sir Roderick, famous geologist, his remarks on rock-basins, [152 footnote].
• Mute Historians, silent works of art, such as great bridges and churches, [25].
• Mycenae, some of her ancient relics considered in their relation to the history of vaults and arches, [157] et seq.
• Nantes, her mediæval bridge, now gone, [224-5].
• Napoléon, Pont, near Saint-Sauveur, [278], [280].
• Narni, a broken war-bridge of the thirteenth century, [277-8].
• Narni Bridge, remains of a Roman masterpiece, [23], [24], [25].
• Narrow Arches in the first Roman aqueducts and bridges, [191-2].
• Narses, general and statesman, in the reign of Justinian, rebuilt the Pons Salarus, [191].
• National Defence, in its relation to bridges, [vii], [viii], [15], [238-9], [244], [259], [260], [261], [272], [328], [331], [334], [337], [350], [352], [355-9].
• Natural Arches, [6], and [footnote], [150-6].
• Natural Bridges, [3], [4], [6], and [footnote];
• see also [Chapter II].
• Nature, her social rule in her cellular commonwealths is far superior to the social rule in human societies, [19].
• Nature, her School for Mimics, see [Chapter II].
• Nature-made Bridges, [3], [4], [6], and [footnote];
• see also [Chapter II].
• Nature’s Strife, [3], [4], [37];
• see also “Strife and Historic Bridges,” [14-52].
• Navilly, Pont de, by Gauthey, its imperfect decoration, [322].
• Neronianus, Pons, [197].
• Nero’s Aqueduct, [189].
• Nests, Birds’, their influence on handicraft, [111], [112].
• Neuilly-sur-Seine, Pont de, by Perronet, [338].
• Neville, Count, in 1440, bequeathed twenty pounds to “Ulshawe Bridge,” [10].
• New Bridge on Thames, near Kingston, its Early English arches, [96].
• Newcastle Bridge possessed a chapel, [231].
• Newcastle High Level Bridge, [79-80].
• Newman, Cardinal, on the terrible strife in human history, [38], [39].
• New Manhattan Bridge at New York, [354].
• New Port at Lincoln, a Roman arch, [162].
• Ney, Marshal, his celebrated criticism of the aqueduct of Segovia, [184].
• Noblemen, Rival, in the Middle Ages, often opposed the building of bridges, [250-1].
• Nomentano, Ponte, [298-9];
• also the picture facing page [296.]
• None-such House on Old London Bridge, [216].
• Norfolk Bridges, [135].
• Norfolk Shrines in the Middle Ages, [236].
• Norman Bridges, [96], [97], [98].
• Notre-Dame, Pont, Paris, [225].
• Obelisks on the Hoogesluis at Amsterdam, [323].
• Ogivale Arches, see [“Pointed Arches.”]
• Old London Bridge, see [“London Bridge, Old.”]
• Orense, in Gallicia, her famous gabled bridge, [28], [29], and [footnote].
• Orléans, Pont d’, in the fifteenth century, [239];
• her Belle Croix, [246-7].
• Ornament on Bridges, see [“Bridge Decoration”] or [“Decoration of Bridges.”]