Few
indications of Roman supremacy are more striking than the unexpected
sight of one of those bridges of solid and symmetrical masonry which the
traveller in Italy encounters, when emerging from a mountain-pass or a
squalid town upon the ancient highway. The permanent method herein
apparent suggests an energetic and pervasive race whose constructive
instinct was imperial; such an evidence of their pathway over water is
as suggestive of national power as the evanescent trail of the savage is
of his casual domain. In the bridge, as in no other structure, use
combines with beauty by an instinctive law; and the stone arch, more or
less elaborate in detail, is as essential now to the function and the
grace of a bridge as when it was first thrown, invincible and
harmonious, athwart the rivers Caesar's legions crossed.
As I stood on the scattered planks which afford a precarious foothold
amid the rapids of St. Anthony, methought these frail bridges of hewn
timber accorded with the reminiscence of the missionary pioneer who
discovered and named the picturesque waters more than an elaborate and
ancient causeway. Even those long, inelegant structures which lead the
pedestrian over our own Charles River, or the broad inlets of the
adjacent bay, have their peculiar charm as the scene of many a gorgeous
autumnal sunset and many a patient "constitutional" walk.
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