The bridge which
divides the town and crosses the Reuss is covered, yet most of the
pictures are weather-stained; as no vehicles are allowed,
foot-passengers can examine them at ease. They are in triangular frames,
ten feet apart, but few have any technical merit. One series illustrates
Swiss history; and the Kapellbruecke has the pictorial life of the Saint
of the town; while the Mile Bridge exhibits a quaint and rough copy of
the famous "Dance of Death."
In Switzerland what fearful ravines and foaming cascades do bridges
cross! sometimes so aerial, and overhanging such precipices, as to
justify to the imagination the name superstitiously bestowed on more
than one, of the Devil's Bridge; while from few is a more lovely effect
of near water seen than the "arrowy Rhone," as we gaze down upon its
"blue rushing" beneath the bridge at Geneva. Perhaps the varied
pictorial effects of bridges, at least in a city, are nowhere more
striking than at Venice, whose five hundred, with their mellow tint and
association with palatial architecture and streets of water, especially
when revealed by the soft and radiant hues of an Italian sunset, present
outlines, shapes, colors, and contrasts so harmonious and beautiful as
to warm and haunt the imagination while they charm the eye.
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