We have only to cross the Suspension Bridge at Niagara, or gaze
up to its aerial tracery from the river, or look forth upon wooded
ravines and down precipitous and umbrageous glens from the Erie Railway,
to feel that in this, as in all other branches of mechanical enterprise,
our nation is as boldly dexterous as culpably reckless. As an instance
of ingenuity in this sphere, the bridge which crosses the Potomac
Creek, near Washington, deserves notice. The hollow iron arches which
support this bridge also serve as conduits to the aqueduct which
supplies the city with water.
Amid the mass of prosaic structures in London, what a grand exception to
the architectural monotony are her bridges! how effectually they have
promoted her suburban growth! Canova thought the Waterloo Bridge the
finest in Europe, and, by a strangely tragic coincidence, this noble and
costly structure is the favorite scene of suicidal despair, wherewith
the catastrophes of modern novels and the most pathetic of city lyrics
are indissolably associated. Westminster Bridge is as truly the Swiss
Laboyle's monument of architectural genius, fortitude, and patience, as
St.
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