The World’s Famous Bridges

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 18, 1907

The World’s Famous Bridges

BRIDGES have played an important part in history, and from the days when Trajan built the bridge across the Danube, there has been a steady development in the perfection of these structures.

One of the most peculiar bridges in the world is the tubular suspension bridge across Menai Strait. This bridge consists of two lines of immense tubing, each 1,500 feet long, supported by three granite towers besides the shore abutments. This strange bridge is 100 feet above the sea, and weighs 11,000 tons.

The famous Niagara Suspension Bridge was begun in 1852 and completed in 1855. It was 245 feet above the water and 821 feet long.

The Forth Bridge, over the Frith of Forth, near Edinburgh, has two cantilever spans each 1,710 feet in length, the longest in the world. The total length of this structure is one and four-sevenths miles, and there were 51,000 tons of steel used in its construction.

The first cast-iron bridge in the world was the Coalbrookdale Bridge, England, which was built in 1779.

The famous Brooklyn Bridge was begun in 1867, and not finished for nearly seventeen years. Its total cost was about fifteen million dollars.

There have been several London bridges. There was one at the end of the tenth century, and another in 1014 built of wood. In 1176 Colechurch began a stone bridge across the Thames, which was not finished until 1209. The new London bridge was begun in 1824, and completed in seven years, at the cost of one and a half million dollars.—Record-Herald.