" With an eye and an ear for
Nature's poetry, the gleam of lamps from a bridge, the figures that pass
and repass thereon, the rush and the lull of waters beneath, the
perspective of the arch, the weather-stains on the parapet, the sunshine
and the cloud-shadows around, are phases and sounds fraught with meaning
and mystery.
It is an acknowledged truth in the philosophy of Art, that Beauty is the
handmaid of Use; and as the grace of the swan and the horse results from
a conformation whose _rationale_ is movement, so the pillar that
supports the roof, and the arch that spans the current, by their
serviceable fitness, wed grace of form to wise utility. The laws of
architecture illustrate this principle copiously; but in no single and
familiar product of human skill is it more striking than in bridges; if
lightness, symmetry, elegance, proportion charm the ideal sense, not
less are the economy and adaptation of the structure impressive to the
eye of science. Perhaps the ideas of use and beauty, of convenience and
taste, in no instance, coalesce more obviously; and therefore, of all
human inventions, the bridge lends the most undisputed charm to the
landscape.
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