There the bridge is the least
conventional structure, the suggestive point, the favorite locality; it
seems to reunite the working-day world with the freedom of Nature; it is
perhaps the one spot in the dense array of edifices and thoroughfares
which "gives us pause." There, if anywhere, our gaze and our feet
linger; people have a relief against the sky, as they pass over it;
artists look patiently thither; lovers, the sad, the humorous, and the
meditative, stop there to observe and to muse; they lean over the
parapet and watch the flowing tide; they look thence around as from a
pleasant vantage-ground. The bridge, in populous old towns, is the
rendezvous, the familiar landmark, the traditional nucleus of the place,
and perhaps the only picturesque framework in all those marts and homes,
more free, open, and suggestive of a common lot than temple, square, or
palace; for there pass and repass noble and peasant, regal equipage and
humble caravan; children plead to stay, and veterans moralize there; the
privileged beggar finds a standing-place for charity to bless; a shrine
hallows or a sentry guards, history consecrates or Art glorifies, and
trade, pleasure, or battle, perchance, lends to it the spell of fame.
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