took water again on the Middlesex side, and proceeded in the royal barge to Whitehall. The lord mayor was present in the city state barge. Lord Liverpool gave a superb dinner to several persons of distinction after the ceremonies of the day. The bridge was open to the public at seven o'clock in the evening, and an immense number of persons passed over it. A fair of three days' continuance was held on the Surrey side of the bridge, and which, we understand, is to be annually observed in commemoration of a work of such national utility. It will not, we presume, be uninteresting to our readers to read the following Descriptive Particulars of the Bridge. The Savoy Palace, situated on the northern bank of the river Thames, was chosen for the spot from which a bridge should be erected, to pass over to the county of Surrey; the bridges already erected, namely, Westminster and Blackfriars, being at a great distance from each other, owing to the curved course of the river, which thereby rendered the passage from Covent Garden, and the parts adjacent, to the Surrey side, excessively inconvenient and circuitous. To obviate this difficulty, a bridge was projected nearly at an equal distance between the other two; and though undertaken by individuals under an act of parliament, has been executed in a manner wholly without example for public spirit displayed by them. In general the persons who undertake such an enterprise seek to obtain the proposed advantage to themselves at the cheapest rate; they calculate high profits and the lowest possible expenditure: but the proprietors of the Waterloo Bridge, highly to their honour, have in the first instance only studied magnificence and durability. The most durable and expensive materials (granite) have been employed, under one of the ablest engineers of the day, Mr. Rennie, who has, with much skill and unremitting attention, brought to a conclusion a work, which will remain a monument of his ability, and of the liberality and public spirit of the proprietors. The British parliament, by an act dated 1816, gave the bridge the name of Waterloo. They thought, that the fittest monument for one of the greatest of victories, should be the grandest bridge that ever was erected. Dimensions of the Bridge. .... The length of the stone bridge within the Total length from the Strand, where the build- Thickness of each pier.. Clear waterway under the nine arches, which are equal.. Feet. 1242 1250 400 2890 42 7 28 120 ..... 20 1080 40 16 Number of brick arches on the Surrey side.. Length of the other Bridges in London. Feet. Westminster, from wharf to wharf. Blackfriars London Bridge. Vauxhall Cast Iron Bridge 1223 940 900 860 The whole of the outside courses of the bridge is Cornish granite, except the balustrades, which are of Aberdeen granite; and the stones, like those of the Temple of Solomon, were cut to their form before they were brought to the spot. There are 320 piles driven into the bed of the river under each pier, the length of each pile from 19 to 22 feet, and the diameter about 13 inches: there is one pile to every yard square. The scientific manner in which the centres are constructed was admirable; and as all the arches are of the same size, the centres were removed from those that were finished, and placed on the piers where the arches were not yet thrown: this was an operation that required great skill and care, and was very ably executed. When the centres were removed, so solidly and well was the masonry constructed, that in the middle they only sunk about one inch. Those of the Pont de Neuilly, in France, six miles from Paris, which are nearly similar, sunk about 13 inches in the middle, after the centres were taken away. The scientific principle on which the centres were constructed, which does great credit to Mr. Rennie, the engineer, was that of the longitudinal incompressibility of timber. The strongest and largest beams of wood bend and yield when pressed upon laterally; and by that means the form of a centre constructed in the usual manner, is different when loaded from what it is when not loaded: but as no weight that men are acquainted with, when acting gradually, will shorten the length of a beam, it was so contrived that the pressure acted always longitudinally or lengthwise, and not laterally or sidewise; so that those centres remained in form unchangeable, as much as if they had been one solid mass of matter, the two extreme points resting on the firm and well constructed piers. In circular arches, such as those of Westminster or Blackfriars' Bridges, the pressure on the centres before the key-stones are put in place, is not near so great as in elliptical arches like those of Waterloo.. The four toll-lodges are neat appropriate doric structures. -We observed a clever contrivance at each lodge for the purpose of checking and preventing their dishonesty to the trust. The kind of iron turn-stiles, which admit of only one person passing at a time, touch some machinery which communicates with a clock locked up in an oak box in each toll-house, the index of which is thereby moved, so that on looking at it the number of those who have passed is directly seen. Some machinery, for a similar object, is to be applied to the horse and carriage gates. We understand that, when the lamps are completed, the gas lights will be introduced. The situation of this bridge is remarkably fine; it gives the grandest view we have of the river in its beautiful meander, displays the rising E E crescent of buildings on the north side, and brings out Somerset Terrace in the most favourable way; while on the south it opens the view of the Surrey hills. The bridge was only six years in building. It is exactly on a level with the Strand, where it joins, and is fifty feet above the surface of the water of the River Thames. The first stone of the bridge was laid on Friday, the 11th of October, 1811, by Henry Swann, esq. M.P.: a bottle containing coins of his present majesty's reign was deposited in the first stone, over which a plate with the following inscription was laid : "This foundation stone of the Strand Bridge was laid on the 11th day of October, A. D. 1811, by the Directors for executing the same, Henry Swann, Esq. M.P. Chairman, in the 51st year of the reign of King George the Third, and during the Regency of His R. H. George Prince of Wales, the money for building which was raised by subscription, under the authority of an Act of Parliament. "Engineer, JOHN RENNIE, F.R.S,” Vauxhall Bridge, THIS undertaking was originally projected by Mr. Ralph Dodd. But in consequence of circumstances, which we have neither the power nor the inclination to display to the public, it was withdrawn from his management, and successively passed through the hands of Mr. Rennie and Sir Samuel Bentham into those of Mr. J. Walker. |