" Bonds of nationality, in more than a physical
sense, indeed, are bridges: even cynical Heine found an endeared outlook
to his native Rhine on the bastion of a familiar bridge; Tennyson makes
one an essential feature of his English summer picture, wherein forever
glows the sweet image of the "Gardener's Daughter"; and Bunyan found no
better similitude for Christian's passage from Time to Eternity than the
"river where there is no bridge."
The primitive need, the possible genius, the science, and the sentiment
of a bridge endear its aspect and associations beyond those of any other
economical structure. There is, indeed, something genially picturesque
about a mill, as Constable's pencil and Tennyson's muse have aptly
demonstrated; there is an artistic miracle possible in a sculptured
gate, as those of Ghiberti so elaborately evidence; science, poetry, and
human enterprise consecrate a light-house; sacred feelings hallow a
spire; and mediaeval towers stand forth in noble relief against the
sunset sky: but around none of these familiar objects cluster the same
thoroughly human associations which make a bridge attractive to the
sight and memory.
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