Chapter II

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BRIDGE BUILT WITH ARCHES, its anatomy. Professor Fleeming Jenkin says: “An arch may be of stone, brick, wood, or metal. The oldest arches are of stone or brick. They differ from metal and from wooden arches, inasmuch as the compressed arc of materials called the _ring_ is built of a number of separate pieces having little or no cohesion. Each separate stone used in building the _ring_ has received the name of _voussoir_, or archstone. The lower surface of the ring is called the _soffit_ of the arch. The _joints_, or bed-joints, are the surfaces separating the voussoirs, and are normal to the soffit. A brick arch is usually built in numerous rings, so that it cannot be conceived as built of voussoirs with plane joints passing straight through the ring. The bed-joints of a brick arch may be considered as stepped and interlocked. This interlocking will affect the stability of the arch only in those cases where one voussoir tends to slip along its neighbour. The _ring_ springs from a course of stones in the abutments, called _quoins_. The plane of demarcation between the ring and the abutment is called the _springing_ of the arch. The _crown_ of an arch is the summit of the ring. The voussoirs at the crown are called _keystones_. The _haunches_ of an arch are the parts midway between the springing and the crown. The upper surface of the ring is sometimes improperly called the extrados, and the lower surface is more properly called the intrados. These terms, when properly employed, have reference to a mathematical theory of the arch little used by engineers. The walls which rest upon the ring along the arch, and rise either to the parapet or to the roadway, are called _spandrils_. There are necessarily two outer spandrils forming the faces of a bridge; there may be one or more inner spandrils. The _backing_ of an arch is the masonry above the haunches of the ring; it is carried back between the spandrils to the pier or to the abutment. If the backing is not carried up to the roadway, as is seldom the case, the rough material employed between the backing and the roadway is called the _filling_. The _parapet_ rests on the outer _spandrils_.”

BRIDGE CHAPELS AND ORATORIES, 82, 208, 209, 216-17, 218-19, 225-39, 241-6, 256.

BRIDGE CROSSES AND CRUCIFIXES, 96, 230, 246-7.

BRIDGE DECORATION, 193-4, 195-6, 201, 215, 227, 286, 304, 305, 311, 312, 316, 318-28.

BRIDGE FRIARS, or Pontist Brothers, the _Frères Pontifes_, 93, 236, 296, and _footnote_.

BRIDGENORTH, formerly the bridge there had a chapel, 231; it has shelter-places for foot-passengers, 258 _footnote_.

BRIDGES WITH WIDE ARCHED SPANS, 309-10.

BRIDGE-WRECKERS, 352, 355. It is worth noting that the King of the Belgians in the present Great War has used a cyclist corps of bridge-wreckers, whose work is described in the _Daily Mail_, December 14, 1914, page 4. “The cyclists led the way. The explosives followed in a car. The charge was fixed to the girders under the bridges, an electric wire affixed, you touched a button and the near span of the bridge was in a moment no more than a gap. Their greatest achievement ... was a railway bridge between Courtrai and Audenarde. It needed two charges.” The cyclists regarded their work as “fun,” because no bridge was at all difficult to destroy.

BRIG OF AYR, 94.

BRIG O’ DOON, 45, 94.

BRISTOL BRIDGE, OLD, a copy of Old London Bridge, had a chapel, 231.

BRITANNIA BRIDGE over the Menai Straits, its great defects, 77-8; its length and its cost, 357.

BRITISH AND FRENCH BRIDGES contrasted, 256-8, 281, 294-5; the French genius in architecture often superior to the British, 294-5.

BRITISH APATHY, see “Apathy, British.”

BRIVES-CHARENSAC, on the Loire, its ruined Roman bridge, 179, 180; the arch has a double ring of voussoirs, 305 _footnote_.

BRONZE PERIOD, MEN OF THE, 21; approximate date of this period, 21; pastoral life of the Bronze Age on Dartmoor, 100, 101; this life rendered bridges necessary, 101, 103.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE, at New York, described and criticised, 354.

“BROWN BESS,” the Old Musket, displaced for a better weapon in 1857, 334.

BUCHAN, DR. WILLIAM, one of Lister’s little-known forerunners, 58 _footnote_.

BUCKLER, J. C. AND C., their “Remarks on Wayside Chapels,” 228 _footnote_.

BUDAPEST, the chains of its great suspension bridge pass _through_ the towers instead of _over_ the summits, 346.

BUJUCO BRIDGES in South America, described by the Spanish Admiral Don Antonio de Ulloa, 146, 147.

BULLEID, A., a writer on the Glastonbury Lake Village, 139 _footnote_.

BUNSEN, on the bridges of ancient Rome, 193, 197.

BURDON, ROWLAND, in 1796, designed Wearmouth Bridge, 349.

BURNSALL BRIDGE in Wharfedale, its shelter-places for foot-passengers, 258 _footnote_.

BUSH-ROPE, in Equatorial Central Africa, its use in bridge-building, 123.

CABLE BRIDGES OF BAMBOO in China, 145; of ox-hide thongs in Peru, 146; and also in the Andes, 147.

CÆSAR AND THE BRITISH TRIBES, 22; he speaks of the Gaulish bridges, 70, 71.

CAHORS, THE PONT VALENTRÉ AT, a fortified bridge of the thirteenth century, 27, 92, 263-4, 282-5; See also the illustrations facing pages 16 and 264; There was another great old bridge at Cahors, but it perished in a storm of local party politics, 44.

CAILLE, PONT DE LA, famous modern suspension bridge, 344.

CALAHORRA, the big tower guarding an entrance to the bridge at Córdova, 188.

CANADA, devoted to very vulnerable bridges, 354.

CANAL BRIDGE in Venice, 329.

CANALS, their construction has been a phase of war claiming a great many lives, 17, and _footnote_.

CANE VINES used in Africa in the making of bush-rope, 123.

CÁNGAS DE ONIS, the gabled bridge at, 27.

CANINA, his attempt to reconstruct the Pons Sublicius differs from Colonel Emy’s, 140.

CANNON, the slow improvement in their manufacture, 333.

CANNON STREET RAILWAY BRIDGE, the colour plate facing p. 48.

CANOES, they often take the place of bridges in Africa, 123.

CANTERBURY, THE ARCHBISHOP OF, in 1318, owned the land adjoining Old Shoreham Bridge, 41; His name was Walter Reynolds.

CAPAC YUPANQUI, the fifth Ynca, and his bridge of rushes, 146-7.

CAPPUCINA, PONTE DI PORTA, a Roman bridge at Ascoli-Piceno, 201.

CARACALLA, 129.

CARCASSONNE, OLD BRIDGE AT, dating from the 12th century, 92; see also the plate facing page 104.

CARMAGNOLA destroyed the great old bridge spanning the Adda at Trezzo, 309.

CARTARO, PONTE, a mediæval bridge at Ascoli-Piceno, 201.

CASTRO GONZALO, THE OLD BRIDGE OF, blown up by Moore’s rearguard, 334-5.

CATHERINE, ST., the chapel on the Pont des Consuls at Montauban was dedicated to her, 256.

CATTERICK BRIDGE had a chapel, 231; the Contract Deed for the building of this bridge, 253.

CAVE-DWELLINGS, the earliest were stolen from cave-lions and cave-bears, 111.

CAVES, with arched entrances, 150 _footnote_.

CELLS, COMMUNITIES OF, in the human body; the beautiful harmony of their competitive life, how it differs from the social rule in the civilizations bungled by mankind, 18, 19, 25.

CENTRES OR CENTRING, the curved scaffolding upon which arches are built. The voussoirs rest on the centres while the ring is in process of being constructed. When the centres are not rigid enough, arches sink a good deal while the masons are at work and after the scaffolding is carefully struck. In Perronet’s bridge at Neuilly-sur-Seine, for example, the sinking amounted to twenty-three inches, 338; thirteen inches while the centre was in its place, and ten inches after the centre was removed. On the other hand, when the centres of Waterloo Bridge were taken down, no arch sank more than 1½ inches. There is reason to believe that modern centres are more complicated than were the mediæval. See page 264 and page 286.

CERCEAU, DU, ANDROUET, French architect and builder of the fortified bridge at Châtellerault, 331-4; see also the colour plate facing page 332.

CESTIUS, PONS, at Rome, 196-7.

CHÂLON-SUR-SAÔNE, the quaint citizenship of its mediæval bridge, 224.

CHAMAS, SAINT, in France, and its famous Roman bridge, 176-7.

CHAMBERS OR ROOMS built in bridges, Paris examples, 225; a Persian example, 267-8.

CHAPEL OF ST. CATHERINE on the Pont des Consuls at Montauban, 256.

CHAPEL OF ST. NICHOLAS on the Pont St. Bénézet at Avignon, 237.

CHAPEL OF ST. THOMAS À BECKET on Old London Bridge, 216-17.

CHAPELS ON BRIDGES, 82, 208, 209, 216-17, 218-19, 225-39, 241-6, 256.

CHARACTER, THE DRAMA OF, among the progenitors of Man, 115-19.

CHARACTER OF A GREAT BRIDGE, its principal traits, 15-16, 256-7, 320-8.

CHARING CROSS, THE RAILWAY VIADUCT FROM, disgraces the Thames, 256.

CHARITY, a Builder of Bridges in the Middle Ages, 251-2.

CHARLEMAGNE, his friendly attitude to roads and bridges, 26, 86-7.

CHARLES THE FIFTH, Emperor, in 1521, armed his troops with the musket, 333.

CHARLES THE SECOND, routed at Worcester, fled by Old Pershore Bridge into the Bredon Hills, 355.

CHÂTEAU-THIERRY, BRIDGE AT, built by Perronet, 338 _footnote_.

CHÂTELLERAULT, PONT HENRI IV AT, built by Androuet du Cerceau, perhaps the latest fortified bridge in Europe, 331-2; see also the colour plate facing page 332.

CHATSWORTH, A FINE BRIDGE AT, is troubled by pretence in decoration, 322.

CHAUCER, and Old Bow Bridge, 98, 99.

CHEESE AND CHICKENS, eaten by mediæval workmen who allowed their bridge at Abingdon to be built by charity, 252 _footnote_.

CHENONCEAUX, THE NOBLE CASTLE OF, erected on bridges, 300.

CHESTER, the Old Dee Bridge, 258 _footnote_, and 305 _footnote_.

CHINA, STAIRCASE BRIDGE IN, 248.

CHINESE BRIDGES, 126, 145, 210, 211, 247-9, 291, 310-16, 344-8.

CHIPIEZ, his fine restoration of the doorway into the Treasury of Atreus, 158.

CHO-GAN, THE BRIDGE OF, in China, 313.

CHOLLERFORD, near Hexham, its ruins of a Roman bridge, 173.

CHURCH, MEDIÆVAL, protected bridges, 40, 51, 96, 207; see also “Bridge Chapels and Oratories,” “Bridge Crosses and Crucifixes,” and “Indulgences.”

CHURCH, MEDIÆVAL, what England owed to her, 233.

CIRCLES AND CURVES AND ANGLES, their varied symbolism, 153-5.

CISTERCIANS, they introduced ribbed vaulting into the English churches, 94-5; so why not into bridges also as a development therefrom? 96; Their bridges at Fountains Abbey, 96.

CITIZENSHIP, ENGLISH, in the Middle Ages, was often slack and dishonest, 49-51; the citizenship of mediæval bridges, which were connected in a self-evident manner with all the principal motive-powers of social life, 208, 209, 210 _et seq._

CIVILIZATIONS, their rival ideals tested and proved on stricken fields, vii; the five phases of their evolution, 22-3; their social rule has differed deplorably from Nature’s social order in her communities of living competitive cells, 18, 19, 25.

CLAIN, RIVER, AND ITS BRIDGE, see the illustration facing page 56.

CLAMPS, IRON, said to have been used in the bridge at Babylon, 274; in Roman bridges, 172-3; Perronet used them sometimes, 283.

CLAPPER BRIDGES, DARTMOOR, 100-4; rather similar bridges in Lancashire, 60-4; in Spain at Fuentes de Oñoro, 104-5; in ancient Egypt, 126, and Babylon, 127; and in China, 126-7.

CLAPTRAP, the drum of controversy, 89; British claptrap and its dangers, 33 _et seq._, 360.

CLASSIC AND GOTHIC, their rivalry, 336-7.

CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE, 346.

CLUNY, ABBEY OF, commissioned the Pontist Brothers to build the Pont St. Esprit, 297.

COALBROOKDALE BRIDGE, the earliest European bridge of cast iron, 348-9.

COBHAM, SIR JOHN, in 1387, helped to build Rochester Bridge, 244.

COBLENTZ, the Moselle Bridge, dating from 1344, 260.

COCLES, HORATIUS, and the Pons Sublicius, 64, 355.

COFFERDAMS, 251, 253; their structure described, 253 _footnote_.

COLECHURCH, PETER, priest and chaplain, the first architect of Old London Bridge, 217, 280 _footnote_.

COLNE, near, a Roman bridge, 162.

COLOGNE, BRIDGE OF BOATS AT, 1; an absurd railway bridge there, 323.

COMYN, JOHN, his fight on the Ouse Bridge at York, 241.

CONSERVATISM, when carried to excess, turns most people into other people, see section iii,