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 THE MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL.

T he project of constructing a ship canal to connect Manchester

with the sea appears to have been started just before the
railway era, but it was then abandoned, as the opening of the
Liverpool and Manchester Canal brought about an immediate
reduction in the rates of carriage. Perhaps it was the success of the
Suez Canal which caused the revival of this scheme, in 1880,
combined with the depression of the cotton trade at that period,
when the Liverpool dock dues and the comparatively high railway
rates proved a heavier tax than usual on the great Lancashire
industry. The first definite steps were taken two years afterwards,
when two plans were submitted for the selection of a committee.
One scheme proposed to construct the canal without any locks; but,
as Manchester is 60 feet above the sea level, there would, it was
felt, be certain inconveniences in loading or unloading ships in a
deep depression. The other plan was submitted by Mr. Leader
Williams, a well known canal engineer, who proposed to take the
canal from Runcorn, a distance of 20 miles, and making use of locks.
When Parliament was applied to for powers authorizing the
prosecution of the enterprise, there was, of course, much opposition
offered by the various interests involved, and the inquires before the
Committees of each House of Parliament were unusually protracted,
for they extended in all to 175 days, and the cost to the promoters is
said to have amounted to £150,000. Then, when the Bill had passed,
it was found that the capital (£8,000,000) could not be raised owing
to the financial depression, and partly also to some want of
confidence in the soundness of the undertaking on the part of the
Lancashire capitalists. But the promoters submitted the whole
scheme to a representative committee, who should consider any
possible objections. This committee reported (after sitting almost
daily for five weeks) upon every point, and were unanimous in
pronouncing the undertaking to be perfectly practicable and
commercially sound. After this there was no difficulty in raising the
required capital, which was subscribed by corporate bodies as well
as private persons. The contract was let for £5,750,000, and the
work was commenced in November, 1887, the contractor
undertaking to have the canal completed and ready for traffic by
January 1st, 1892.

Fig. 133.—Western Portion.

Fig. 134.—Eastern Portion.

Figs. 133 and 134.—Map of the

Manchester Ship Canal.

The Manchester Docks of this canal will cover an area of nearly 200
acres at the south-western suburb of that city, and from there the
canal traverses the Valley of the Irwell, following, indeed, the
general course of the river, but not its windings, so that the bed of
the river is, in the distance of eight miles, or down to its junction
with the Mersey, repeatedly crossed by the line of the canal. From
the confluence of the rivers, the canal traverses the Valley of the
Mersey, for this is the name retained by the combined streams. The
course of the river, in its progress towards the sea, now makes wider
bends, but the canal proceeds, by a slight and nearly uniform curve,
to Latchford, near Warrington, passing to the south of which last
named place it follows a straight line to Runcorn, which is at a
distance of 23 miles from Manchester. Here it reaches what is now
the estuary of the Mersey, but the embankments are continued
along the southern shore to Eastham, where the terminal locks are
placed. In this part of the canal, the engineer had difficulties to
overcome of a different nature from those encountered in the upper
part, where it was chiefly a matter of cutting across the ground
intervening between the bends of the river, so as to form for its
waters a new and direct channel everywhere of the requisite breadth
and depth. But when Runcorn has been passed, and Weston Point
rounded, there is the mouth of the River Weaver to be crossed, and
this is marked by a great expanse of loose and shifting mud. Other
affluents of the Mersey are dealt with by means of sluices, and in
one instance the waters of a river are actually carried beneath the
course of the canal by conduits of 12 feet in diameter. The total
length of the canal from Manchester to the tidal locks at Eastham is
35 miles.

Fig. 135.—A Cutting for the Manchester

Ship Canal.
 Fig. 136.—Blasting Rocks for the
Manchester Ship Canal.

The minimum width of the canal at the bottom is 120 feet, its depth
26 feet. But for several miles below Manchester this width will be
increased, so that ships may be moored along the sides, and yet
sufficient space left for the up and down lines of traffic in the middle.
In this way, works and manufactories on the banks will be able to
load and unload their cargoes at their own doors, and it may be
expected that the advantages so offered will cause the banks of the
canal to be much in request for the sites of works of all kinds. At the
several places where the locks are placed there will be a smaller and
a larger one, side by side, so that water shall not be needlessly used
in passing a moderate sized vessel through the greater locks. As
these last are 550 feet long and 60 feet wide, they are capable of
receiving the largest ships, whilst the smaller locks are 300 feet long
and 40 feet wide. Again, both the larger and the smaller are
provided with gates in the middle, so that only half their length may
be used when that is found sufficient. Coming down the canal from
Manchester, the first set of locks will be at Barton, about three miles
distance, just below the place where the Bridgewater Canal is carried
across the Irwell, which is now to become the ship canal, by means
of the aqueduct of 1760, by which Brindley became so famous.
There is a story told about Brindley being desirous of satisfying the
duke about the practicability of his plan, and requesting the
confirmatory opinion of another engineer. When, however, this
gentleman was taken to the place where it was proposed to
construct the aqueduct, he shook his head, and said that he had
often heard of castles in the air, but had never before been shown
where any of them were to be erected. This aqueduct is about 600
feet long, and the central one of its three arches spans the river at a
height of nearly 40 feet above the water. But the Manchester Ship
Canal requires a clear headway of 75 feet, and Mr. Williams is going
to replace the fixed stone structure by a swinging aqueduct, or
trough of iron, which can be turned round, so as to give a clear
passage for ships in his canal. This trough, or great iron box, will
have gates at each end, and gates will be provided in the aqueduct
at each side, so that no water will be lost when the water bridge is
turned aside. But more than this; hydraulic lifts have been designed,
so that, in a few minutes, vessels can be lowered from the
Bridgewater Canal into the Manchester Canal, or raised from the
latter into the former while still floating in water. The supply of water
for the canal will be ample, as it has the rivers Irwell, Mersey and
Bollin, with their tributary streams, to draw from. It should be
mentioned that the terminal locks at Eastham will be of somewhat
larger dimensions than those already referred to, and will be three in
number. The largest, which is on the south or landward side, will be
600 feet by 80 feet, the middle one 350 feet by 50 feet, and the
smallest one 150 feet by 30 feet. These three locks will be separated
by concrete piers 30 feet wide, on which will be placed the hydraulic
machinery for opening and closing the gates. Besides the ordinary
gates, there will be provided for each lock at Eastham an outer pair
of storm-gates that will be closed only in rough weather. These
gates will shut from the outside against the lock sills, and, by
resisting the force of wind and waves, will protect the ordinary tidal
gates from being forced open. The lock gates throughout will be
made of a wood obtained from British Guiana, and known as
greenheart. This timber is the product of a large tree (Nectandra
Rodiœi) belonging to the laurel family. It is a very heavy and close
grained wood, the strength and endurance of which have been
proved many years ago by its use in ship-building, etc., and some of
the logs imported for the canal are remarkably fine specimens, being
22 inches square and 60 feet long. A pair of the largest gates weigh
about 500 tons. The gates of the tidal locks at Eastham will all be
open for half the time of each tide, when there will be a depth of
water, above the sills, greater by 11 feet than that of any dock in
Liverpool or Birkenhead.

Fig. 137.—Manchester Ship Canal Works,

Runcorn.

The way in which the difficulty is overcome of crossing the several

busy lines of railway that intersect the course of the new canal, so
that their traffic shall not be impeded, is one of special interest in
this bold scheme. The London and North Western Railway crosses
the Mersey at Runcorn by a bridge that leaves a clear headway of 75
feet at high water, and it was determined that this headway should
be maintained in the bridges over the canal. The use of swing
bridges on lines of railway over which trains are constantly passing
being out of the question, it is necessary that the railways be carried
over the canal at the required height. It is accordingly laid down in
the Act of Parliament that before the Canal Company can cut the
existing lines of railway it shall construct permanent bridges, and
carry over them lines rising by gradients not exceeding 1 in 135, and
not only so, but these deviation lines must be previously given up to
the several railway companies for six months to be tried
experimentally in that period for goods traffic. The cost of
constructing these deviation lines, which, in all, will not be far short
of 12 miles of new railway, will not be much less than £500,000. The
traffic of the canal will probably have great feeders at certain points
in the other canals and the railway lines that reach it. For instance,
the Bridgewater Canal, now incorporated with the greater
undertaking, will bring traffic from the Staffordshire potteries, the
river Weaver brings salt laden barges from Cheshire, and at other
points the railways will bring the produce of the excellent coal fields
of South Yorkshire and South Lancashire, which will be automatically
transferred from the waggons into ocean going steamships.

Fig. 137a.—The French Steam Navvy.

 Fig. 137b.—The English Steam Navvy.

Though the general notion of the construction of the canal as a

deep, wide trench, or cutting following the course shown on the
map, is sufficiently simple, the operation of carrying this into practice
involves the exercise of great skill and ingenuity in dealing with
mechanical obstacles. Man’s operations in the world consist but in
changing the position of masses of matter; and the properties of
matter—its inertia, cohesion, gravitation, etc., are the forces that
oppose his efforts. The quantity of matter to be shifted in excavating
this trench of thirty-five miles long across the country was no less
than sixty millions of tons. The number of “navvies” employed at one
time has been 15,000; but even this army of workmen would have
made but slow progress with a cutting of this magnitude, had not
the “strong shouldered steam” been also called into operation for
scooping out the soil. The illustrations (Figs. 137a and
#137b:fig137b) will show the arrangement of two forms of “steam
navvies” that were much used on the works. One (Fig. 137a) is
similar to the dredgers used for clearing mud out of rivers and
canals: it consists of a series of scoops, or buckets, mounted on an
endless chain, so as to scrape the material from an inclined
embankment and tip it into waggons for removal. The other (Fig.
137b) may be compared to a gigantic ladle made to scrape against
the face of a cutting in rising, and filling each time its bucket with
nearly a ton of the material. It is most interesting to witness the
perfect control which the man at the levers exercises over this
machine, the movements of which he directs with as much precision
as if he were handling a spoon. One of these steam navvies is able
to fill 600 waggons or more—that is, to remove 3,000 tons of
material—in one day; and as many as eighty of them have been
simultaneously used on the Canal works. The value of the plant
employed by the contractor is estimated at £700,000, and the length
of temporary railway lines (see Fig. 137), for transport of the “spoil,”
etc., is said to exceed 200 miles. There is a main line running
through from one end of the canal to the other, and known to the
workmen as the “Overland Route.” From this diverge numerous
branches, some to the bottom of the excavations in progress, others
to embankments down which is tipped out the “spoil,” as the dug
out material is called; while others connecting with brickfields and
quarries, or with existing canals and railway lines, serve to bring
supplies of the materials used in the constructions. Some 150
locomotives are constantly at work on these temporary lines, and
the coal consumed by them, and by the steam navvies, steam
cranes, pumping engines, etc., is equivalent to about two train loads
every day.
Though the Manchester Ship Canal is to be nearly twice as wide as
the Suez Canal, its width for some miles below Manchester will be
still greater, for there the banks will form long continuous wharves
for the accommodation of the works and factories that are certain to
be attracted to the spot. Indeed, so obvious are the advantages of
ocean shipment, and so extensive the industries of South
Lancashire, that it is not improbable the whole course of the canal
may, in process of time, be lined with wharves, and the two great
cities of Manchester and Liverpool may be united by a continuous
track of dense population. Be that as it may, there seems every
reason to believe that the undertaking will be a financial success.
Calculation has shown that if the cotton alone that enters and leaves
Manchester were carried by the canal at half the rates charged by
the railways, there would result not only an annual saving of
£456,000 to the cotton trade, but a clear profit to the canal company
sufficient to pay more than 3 per cent. interest on its own capital.
And, again, the railway and other local interests that have hitherto
been opposed to this great enterprise can hardly fail to be in the
long run benefited by the enlarged prosperity and increased general
trade and manufactures it will develop. So that it will presently be
found that there is room enough and work enough for both canal
and railways.
The Manchester Ship Canal, so far from having been ready for traffic
on the 1st January, 1892, was not completed until the end of 1893,
and it was only on the 16th December, 1893, that the directors and
their friends made the trial trip throughout its entire length,
accomplishing the distance of 35½ miles in 5½ hours. The total cost
of the canal was greatly in excess of the estimates, which placed it
at eight million pounds, as fifteen millions is the sum actually
expended upon it. With such a vast capital expenditure, it may be
some time before the ordinary shareholders can look for dividends,
especially as there has not been any sudden rush of traffic, such as
many sanguine people expected. On the other hand, traffic is
continuously and steadily increasing, and there is reason to believe
that this great work will ultimately prove a commercial, as it has an
engineering, success.
Fig. 137c.—Sketch Map of The North Sea
Canal.
 THE NORTH SEA CANAL.

L ike several other canals for sea going ships this last addition to
the achievements of modern engineering is but the realisation of
a project conceived at a long past period. The idea of a canal to
connect the Baltic and the North Sea dates back into the Middle
Ages, and indeed a short canal was constructed in 1389, which by
uniting two secondary streams of the peninsula really did provide a
waterway between the two seas. The inefficiency of this means of
communication may be inferred from the fact of there having been
proposed since that period no fewer than sixteen schemes of
canalisation between these two seas, of which the recently
completed North Sea Canal is the sixteenth, and it need hardly be
said the greatest, so that in comparison with it the rest vanish into
insignificance. The canal was commenced in 1887, and on the 20th
of June, 1895, it was opened by the reigning Emperor of Germany,
William II., with a very imposing naval pageant in which nearly a
hundred ships of war from the great navies of the world took part. A
glance at the accompanying sketch-map will show the great
importance of this canal as a highway of commerce. The entrance to
the Baltic has hitherto been round the peninsula of Denmark and
through the narrow “belts” and “sounds” that divide the Danish
Islands, a course beset with imminent perils to navigators, for the
channels abound in rocks and dangerous reefs, to say nothing about
the frequent storms and the impediments of ice floes. Yet as many
as 35,000 vessels have lately had to take that course annually, these
representing a total tonnage of no less than 20,000,000 tons. The
figures speak for the magnitude of the Baltic shipping intercourse
with the rest of the world; while the losses incurred in traversing
these forbidding waters may be gathered from the statement that
since 1858, nearly 3000 ships have been wrecked in them, and a
greater number much damaged. Indeed, for large vessels, there is
hardly a more dangerous piece of navigation in all Europe. The
importance of this canal must not therefore be estimated solely by
the saving of length in ships’ course, though that is great, as the
map shows.
The North Sea Canal is 61 miles long, 200 ft. wide at the surface, 85
ft. wide at the bottom, and it will admit of vessels of 10,000 tons
register passing through, the average time of transit being about
twelve hours. The estimated cost of this undertaking was nearly
eight and a quarter million pounds sterling, and about one-third of
this sum was contributed by Germany, for whom the canal is of the
greatest strategic importance in case of war, for her fighting ships
need not then traverse foreign waters. The construction was
therefore pushed forward with unusual energy, as many as 8,600
men having been engaged on the works at one time. An important
naval station already exists at Kiel, the Baltic end of the canal, where
there is a splendid harbour. The engineer and designer of this water-
way is Herr Otto Baensch, who has devised much ingenious
machinery in connection with the immense tidal locks at the
extremities of the canal, and the swing bridges by which several
lines of railway are carried across it. In the construction of this canal
there were no vast engineering difficulties to be overcome, and
hence striking feats of mountain excavation or valley bridging are
not to be met with in its course, though in places there are some
deep cuttings. The methods of excavating and of steam dredging
that were made use of have already been illustrated in relation to
the other works described in this article. The country through which
the canal passes does not present any unusually picturesque
features.
 THE PANAMA AND NICARAGUA CANAL
PROJECTS.

T he several undertakings described in our chapter on Ship Canals

are now all completed and in active operation, and but for
financial mis-management and dishonest speculations, the same
might probably have been said of another great project, the name of
which was on everyone’s lips a short time ago, but in which public
interest has lately waned; perhaps from a mistaken impression that
the construction itself is involved in a common ruin with the fortunes
of so many of its promoters, or that the scheme was frustrated by
some unforeseen and insurmountable engineering difficulties. These
assumptions have so little justification that it is quite probable that
Lesseps’ last great project may yet be completed under more
favourable auspices, and the Panama Canal unite the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans. The Panama Canal Company still exists, and
possesses not only a very large part of the work almost quite
finished, but all the extensive plant in perfect condition for resuming
operations. The original scheme provided for a tidal water-way
between the two oceans, without the intervention of a single lock.
The canal was to be nearly 47 miles in length, 100 feet wide at the
surface of the water, 72 feet wide at the bottom, and 29 feet deep.
The entrances are at Colon on the Atlantic side, and at Panama on
the Pacific. The latter is the eastern extremity, and the western one
is on the Atlantic side, owing to the configuration of the isthmus
which curves round the Panama Gulf that opens to the south. A
railway crosses the isthmus between the points already named, and
the route of the canal is laid down almost parallel with this railway,
from which it is nowhere far distant. For the first 20 miles from the
Atlantic side the land is only at a very moderate elevation above the
sea-level, say 25 or 30 feet, but the next 11 miles is more hilly, the
elevations reaching at some points 150 to 170 feet, but these are
only for short distances. A few miles farther on, they rise still higher,
until at Culebra the highest point is met with, about 323 feet above
the sea-level, and a cut of this depth, 1,000 feet long, would be
required. Through this highest part it has been proposed to drive a
tunnel, but the total extent of the deep cutting at this part of the
canal would be nearly 2 miles in length. This would no doubt be a
work of the most formidable magnitude, for it has been calculated
that no less than 24,000,000 cubic yards of material, consisting for
the most part of solid rock, would have to be removed. It is not
supposed, however, to offer any great difficulty in an engineering
point of view. Doubtless it would be costly, and would take some
time to accomplish. Another heavy piece of work would consist in
constructions for controlling a mountain torrent called the Rio
Chagres, through the valley of which the canal passes. This stream
is very variable in the quantity of water it discharges, rising in the
rainy season 45 feet above its ordinary level, and sending down forty
times as much water as it does in the dry season.
Mr. Saabye, an American engineer, who examined unofficially the
works of the Panama Canal in 1894, considers that about one half of
the total excavation has already been done, and one half of the total
length of the canal almost finished, and remaining in comparatively
good condition. At both ends, including 15 miles on the Atlantic side,
there is water 18 to 24 feet deep. “Besides the work already done,
the Canal Company has on hand, distributed at both terminals, and
at convenient points along the canal route, an immense stock of
machinery, tools, dredges, barges, steamers, tug-boats, and
materials for continued construction. At Panama, La Boca, and
Colon, as well as along the canal, are numerous buildings—large and
small—for offices, workshops, storehouses, and warehouses, and for
lodging and boarding the men who were employed on the work. The
finished work, as well as all the machinery, tools, materials,
buildings, etc., are well taken care of and looked after. The Canal
Company employs one hundred uniformed policemen, besides
numerous watchmen, machinists, and others, whose sole duty
consists in watching the canal and looking after needed repairs of
plant and care of materials. In fact, the work and the whole plant is
in such a condition, so far as I could ascertain, that renewed
construction could be taken up and carried to a finish at any time it
is desired to do so, after the Company’s finances will permit.”
An enormous amount of money has already been expended on the
Panama Canal, and much of it lavishly and unnecessarily. A
reorganised company may probably be able to form such estimates
of the probable cost of completing the work under careful and
efficient management, that financial confidence in it maybe restored.
The canal not only already possesses the requisite plant, but the
route has the special advantages of assistance in transport from the
railway everywhere at but a short distance from it, and fine
commodious harbours for its ocean mouths. If it were finished as
originally designed, vessels could pass through it with one tide, say
in about six hours. It is understood that before the Panama
enterprise is again proceeded with, the Company think that a sum of
about £25,000 should be expended in a complete survey and re-
study of all the conditions, and the results submitted to the most
eminent engineers.
A rival scheme for carrying a ship canal across the isthmus that
divides the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is that known as the
Nicaragua Canal, as the proposed route is to cross Lake Nicaragua,
an extensive sheet of water situated some 400 or 500 miles north-
west of the Panama Canal. The lake is 110 miles long and 45 miles
broad, and is on its western side separated from the Pacific by a
strip of land only 12 miles wide, having at one point an elevation not
exceeding 154 feet, which is probably the lowest on the isthmus.
The lake drains into the Caribbean Sea on the east, by the San Juan
river, a fine wide stream, 120 miles in length, which is navigable for
river boats from the Caribbean Sea up to the lake, except near its
upper part, where some rapids at certain times prevent the passage
of the boats. This canal project first took definite form in 1850, when
a survey was made and routes reported on. The scheme attracted
some attention in the United States, and in 1872, and again in 1885,
further surveys and estimates were made at the instance of the
States Government. The earlier schemes provided for the rise and
fall between sea and lake-–108 feet, a considerable number of locks
—eleven on each side, making the total length from sea to sea 181
miles. The report of the latter advocated the canalization of the San
Juan by a very bold measure, namely, the construction of an
immense dam, by which the waters were to be retained in the valley
for many miles at the level of the lake. A company was formed to
promote the project, and again in 1890 there were more surveys
and estimates made. This company actually expended a
considerable sum of money in attempting to improve the harbour at
Greytown, which would have formed the eastern terminus, but had
become silted up. But it was found afterwards that it would be better
to recommend the formation of an artificial harbour at another point,
by constructing two long piers running out into the sea, although
this change would involve the abandonment of a few hundred yards
of canal already excavated by the company near Greytown. The
company has also laid down about 12 miles of railway along the
proposed route, with wooden and iron sheds as workshops, offices,
etc., and, moreover, had dredges and other appliances at work. At
this stage it was proposed that the United States Government should
guarantee the bonds of the Nicaragua Canal Company to the extent
of more than twenty million pounds sterling. By an Act of Congress
passed in March, 1895, a commission of engineers was appointed for
the purpose of ascertaining the feasibility, permanence, and cost of
construction and completion of the Nicaragua Canal by the route
contemplated. The report of this commission is an elaborate and
exhaustive review of the whole scheme based upon a personal
examination of the route, and on the plans, surveys, and estimates
made for the company, whose records, however, are stated in the
report to be deficient in the supply of many important data. The
Canal Company’s project provided for the improvement of Greytown
harbour, as already stated, and from that place the canal was to
proceed westward at the sea-level to the range of high ground on
the eastern side of the isthmus, which elevation was to be ascended
by three locks of unusual depth, and a deep cut more than 3 miles in
length, through rock to a maximum depth of 324 feet. After passing
this enormous cut, the route provides for a series of deep basins, in
which the water is confined by numerous dams or embankments,
the canal excavations being confined to short sections through
higher ground separating these basins. The total length of these
embankments will be about 6 miles, and their heights will vary from
a few feet to more than seventy. About 31 miles from Greytown the
canal reaches the San Juan river, which, however, by means of an
enormous dam across the valley at a place called Ochoa, 69 miles
below the point at which it receives the waters of Lake Nicaragua, is
there practically converted into an arm of the lake. This dam, which
would raise the water of the river 60 feet above its present level,
and would, of course, flood the valley back to the lake, is the most
notable feature of the project. Its maximum height would be about
105 feet, and the weirs on its crest, to discharge the surplus water,
would require a total length of nearly a quarter of a mile. Twenty-
three smaller embankments would also be needed for retaining the
waters; the river would have to be deepened in the upper part, and
a channel dredged out in the soft mud of the lake for 14 miles
beyond the river. The big Ochoa dam is said to have no precedent in
engineering construction, on account of its great height and the
enormous volume of the waters it is intended to retain. No doubt its
construction and safe maintenance are within the range of
engineering skill, when a thoroughly exhaustive survey of the site
has been made, and the necessary funds are forthcoming. From the
western shore of the lake its level would also be extended by
another great dam crossing the valleys of the Tola and the Rio
Grande, with a length of 2,000 feet and a height of 90 feet. The
canal would then be carried to the sea-level by a series of locks. The
length of the canal from sea to sea would be 170 miles, but of this
only 40 miles of channel would require to be excavated. The total
cost of the work, as estimated by the Nicaragua Canal Company,
would be about fifteen million pounds sterling, but the State
Commission of Engineers thinks about double that amount would be
a safer calculation, and taking into account the imperfection of the
data, even this might be exceeded in certain contingencies. The
Government of the United States has been urged to expend a few
thousand pounds on another engineering commission, to make
complete surveys, and consider all the practical problems involved,
including the final selection of a route.

Fig. 138.—Britannia Bridge, Menai

Straits.
 IRON BRIDGES.

T he credit of having invented the arch is almost universally

assigned to the ancient Romans, though the period of its
introduction and the date of its first application to bridge building are
unknown. That some centuries before the Christian era, the timber
bridges of Rome had not been superseded by those of more
permanent construction is implied in the legend of the defence of
the gate by Horatius Cocles—a tale which has stirred the heart of
many a schoolboy, and is known to everybody by Macaulay’s spirited
verses, in which
“Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge,
In the brave days of old.”

Some of the arched bridges built by the Romans remain in use to

this day to attest the skill of their architects. The Ponte Molo at
Rome, for example, was erected 100 B.C.; and at various places in
Italy and Spain many of the ancient arches still exist, as at Narni,
where an arch of 150 ft. span yet remains entire. Until the close of
the last century the stone or brick arch was the only mode of
constructing substantial and permanent bridges. And in the present
century many fine bridges have been built with stone arches. The
London and Waterloo Bridges across the Thames are well-known
instances, each having several arches of wide span, attaining in the
respective cases 152 ft. and 120 ft. The widest arch in England, and
one probably unsurpassed anywhere in its magnificent stride of 200
ft., is the bridge across the Dee at Chester, built by Harrisson in
1820. At the end of last century cast iron began to be used for the
construction of bridges, a notable example being the bridge over the
Wear at Sunderland, of which the span is 240 ft. But with the
subsequent introduction of wrought iron into bridge building a new
era commenced, and some of the great results obtained by the use
of this material will be described in the present article. In order that
the reader may understand how the properties of wrought iron have
been taken advantage of in the construction of bridges, a few words
of explanation will be necessary regarding the strains to which the
materials of such structures are exposed.
Such strains may be first mentioned as act most directly on the
materials of any structure or machine, and these are two in number,
namely, extension and compression. When a rope is used to suspend
a weight, the force exerted by the latter tends to stretch the rope,
and if the weight be made sufficiently great, the rope will break by
being pulled asunder. The weight which just suffices to do this is the
measure of the tenacity of the rope. Again, when a brick supports a
weight laid upon it, the force tends to compress the parts of the
brick or to push them closer together, and if the force were great
enough, the brick would yield to it by being crushed. Now, a brick
offers so great a resistance to a crushing pressure, that a single
ordinary red brick may be capable of supporting a weight of 18 tons,
or 40,320 lbs.—that is, about 1,000 lbs. on each square inch of its
surface. Thus the bricks at the base of a tall factory chimney are in
no danger of being crushed by the superincumbent weight, although
that is often very great. The tenacity of the brick, however, presents
the greatest possible contrast to its strength in resisting pressure, for
it would give way to a pull of only a few pounds. Cast iron resembles
a brick to a certain extent in opposing great resistance to being
crushed compared to that which it offers to being pulled asunder,
while wrought iron far excels the cast metal in tenacity, but is
inferior to it in resistance to compression.
The following table expresses the forces in tons which must be
applied for each square inch in the section of the metals, in order
that they may be torn apart or crushed:
 Tenacity per square Crushing pressure per
inch, in tons. square inch, in tons.
Cast iron 8 50
Wrought 30 17
iron
Iron wire 40 ...
Besides the direct strains which tend to simply elongate or compress
the materials of a structure or of a machine, there are modes of
applying forces which give rise to transverse strains, tending to twist
or wrench the pieces or to bend them, or rupture them by causing
one part of a solid to slide away from the rest. Strains of this kind no
doubt come into play in certain subordinate parts of bridges of any
kind; but if we divide bridges according to the nature of the strains
to which the essential parts of the structure are subject, we may
place in a class where the materials are exposed to crushing forces
only, all bridges formed with stone and brick arches; and in a second
class, where the material is subjected to extension only, we can
range all suspension bridges; while the third class is made up of
bridges in which the material has to resist both compression and
extension. This last includes all the various forms of girder bridges,
whether trussed, lattice, or tubular. The only remark that need be
here made on arched bridges is, that when cast iron was applied to
the construction of bridges, the chief strength of the material lying in
its resistance to pressure, the principle of construction adopted was
mainly the same as that which governs the formation of the arch;
but as cast iron has also some tenacity, this permitted certain
modifications in the adjustment of the equilibrium, which are quite
out of the question in structures of brick and stone.
Fig. 139.

Fig. 140.
 Fig. 141.

Fig. 142.

The general principle of the construction of girder bridges is easily

explained by considering a simple case, which is almost within
everybody’s experience. Let us suppose we have a plank supported
as in Fig. 139. The plank will by its own weight sink down in the
centre, becoming curved in the manner shown; or if the curvature
be not sufficiently obvious, it may always be increased by placing
weights on the centre, as at g. If the length of the plank had been
accurately measured when it was extended flat upon the ground, it
would have been found that the upper or concave surface, a b, had
become shorter, and the lower or convex surface, c d, longer when
the plank is supported only at the ends—a result sufficiently obvious
from the figure it assumes. It is plain, then, that the parts of the
wood near the upper surface are squeezed together, while near the
lower surface the wood is stretched out. Thus, the portions in the
vicinity of the upper and lower surfaces are in opposite conditions of
strain; for in the one the tenacity of the material comes into play,
and in the other its power of resisting compression. There is an
intermediate layer of wood, however, which, being neither extended
or compressed, receives no strain. The position of this is indicated by
the line e f, called the neutral line. If the plank, instead of being laid
flat, is put upon its edge, as in Fig. 140, the deflection caused by its
weight will hardly be perceptible, and it will in this position support a
weight which in its former one would have broken it down. There is
in this case a neutral line, e f, as before; but as the part which is
most compressed or extended is now situated at a greater distance
from the neutral line, the resistance of the material acts, as it were,
at a greater leverage. Again the portions near the neutral line are
under no strain; they do not, therefore, add to the strength,
although they increase the weight to be supported, and they may,
for that reason, be removed with advantage, leaving only sufficient
wood to connect the upper and lower portions rigidly together. The
form of cast iron beams, Fig. 141, which were used for many
purposes, depends upon these principles. The sectional area of the
lower flange, which is subjected to tension, is six times that of the
upper one, which has to resist compression, because the strength of
cast iron to resist pressure is about six times greater than its power
of resisting a pull. If the upper flange were made thicker, the girder
would be weaker, because the increased weight would simply add to
the tension of the lower one, where, therefore, the girder would be
more ready to give way than before. If we suppose the vertical web
divided into separate vertical portions, and disposed as at Fig. 142,
the strength of the girder, and the principle on which that strength
depends, will be in no way changed, and we at once obtain the box
girder, which on a large scale, and arranged so that the roadway
passes through it, forms the tubular bridge. It is only necessary that
the upper part should have strength enough to resist the
compressing force, and the lower the extending force, to which the
girder may be subject; and wrought iron, properly arranged, is found
to have the requisite strength in both ways, without undue weight.
The various forms of trussed girders, the trellis and the lattice
girders, now so much used for railway bridges, all depend upon the
same general principles, as does also the Warren girder, in which the
iron bars are joined so as to form a series of triangles, as in Fig. 143.
 Fig. 143.

Girders have been made of wrought iron up to 500 ft. in length, but
the cost of such very long girders is so great, that for spans of this
width other modes of construction are usually adopted.
 GIRDER BRIDGES.

Fig. 144.—Section of a
Tube of the Britannia
Bridge.

T he Britannia Bridge, which carries the Chester and Holyhead

Railway across the Menai Straits, is perhaps the most celebrated
example of an iron bridge on the girder principle. It was designed by
Stephenson, but the late Sir W. Fairbairn contributed largely by his
knowledge of iron to the success of the undertaking, if he did not, in
fact, propose the actual form of the tubes. Stephenson fixed upon a
site about a mile south of Telford’s great suspension bridge, because
there occurred at this point a rock in the centre of the stream, well
adapted for the foundation of a tower. This rock, which rises 10 ft.
above the low-water level, is covered at high water to about the
same depth. On this is built the central tower of the bridge, 460 ft.
from the shore on either side, where rises another tower, and at a
distance from each of these of 230 ft. is a continuous embankment
of stone, 176 ft. long. The towers and abutments are built with
slightly sloping sides, the base of the central or Britannia tower
being 62 ft. by 52 ft., the width at the level where the tubes pass
through it, a height of 102 ft., being reduced by the tapering form to
55 ft. The total height of the central tower is 230 ft. from its rock
foundation. The parapet walls of the abutments are terminated with
pedestals, the summits of which are decorated by huge lions,
looking landwards. As each line of rails has a separate tube, there
are four tubes 460 ft. long for the central spans, and four 230 ft.
long for the shorter spans at each end of the bridge. Each line of
rails, in fact, traverses a continuous tube 1,513 ft. in length,
supported at intervals by the towers and abutments. The four longer
tubes were built up on the shore, and were floated on pontoons to
their positions between the towers, and raised to the required
elevation by powerful hydraulic machinery. The external height of
each tube at the central tower is 30 ft., but the bottom line forms a
parabolic curve, and the other extremities of the tubes are reduced
to a height of 22¾ ft. The width outside is 14 ft. 8 in. Fig. 144
shows the construction of the tube, and it will be observed that the
top and bottom are cellular, each of the top cells, or tubes, being 1
ft. 9 in. wide, and each of the bottom ones 2 ft. 4 in. The vertical
⟙
framing of the tube consists essentially of bars of -iron, which are
bent at the top and bottom, and run along the top and bottom cells
for about 2 ft. The covering of the tubes is formed of plates of
⟙
wrought iron, rivetted to - and ∟-shaped ribs. The thickness of
the plates is varied in different parts from ½ in. to ¾ in. The plates
vary also in their length and width in the different parts of the tubes,
some being 6 ft. by 1¾ ft., and others 12 ft. by 2 ft. 4 in. The joints
are not made by overlapping the plates, but are all what are termed
butt joints, that is, the plates meet edge to edge, and along the
juncture a bar of ⟙-iron is rivetted on each side, thus: . The cells
are also formed of iron plates, bolted together by ∟-shaped iron
bars at the angles. The rails rest on longitudinal timber sleepers,
⟙
which are well secured by angle-iron to the -ribs of the framing
forming the lower cells. More than two millions of rivets were used in
the work, and all the holes for them, of which there are seven
millions, were punched by special machinery. The rivets being
inserted while red hot, and hammered up, the contraction which
took place as they cooled drew all the plates and ribs very firmly
together. In the construction of the tubes no less than 83 miles of
angle-iron were employed, and the number of separate bars and
plates is said to be about 186,000. The expansion and contraction
which take place in all materials by change of temperature had also
to be provided for in the mode of supporting the tubes themselves.
This was accomplished by causing the tubes, where they pass
through the towers, to rest upon a series of rollers, 6 in. in diameter,
and these were arranged in sets of twenty-two, one set being
required for each side of each tube, so that in all thirty-two sets
were needed. There are other ingenious arrangements for the same
purpose at the ends of the tubes resting on the abutments, which
are supported on balls of gun-metal, 6 in. in diameter, so that they
may be free to move in any manner which the contractions and
expansions of the huge tubes may require. Each of the tubes, from
end to end of the bridge, contains 5,250 tons of iron. The mode in
which these ponderous masses were raised into their elevated
position is described in the article on “Hydraulic Power,” as it
furnishes a very striking illustration of the utility and convenience of
that contrivance. The foundation-stone of the central tower was laid
in May, 1846, and the bridge was opened in October, 1850. The
tubes have some very curious acoustic properties: for example, the
sound of a pistol-shot is repeated about half a dozen times by the
echoes, and the tubular cells, which extend from one end of the
bridge to the other, were used by the workmen engaged in the
erection as speaking-tubes. It is said that a conversation may thus
be carried on with a person at the other end of the bridge, a
distance of a quarter of a mile. The rigidity of the great tubes is truly
wonderful. A very heavy train, or the strongest gale, produces
deflections in the centre, vertical and horizontal respectively, of less
than one inch. But when ten or a dozen men are placed so that they
can press against the sides of the tube, they are able, by timing their
efforts so as to agree with the period of oscillation proper to the
tube, to cause it to swing through a distance of 1¼ in.—an
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