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4

THE BRITANNIA BRIDGE.

THE BRITANNIA BRIDGE. ^

The construction of the Britannia and Conway TubularBridges, more especially of the former, has excited an un-usual degree of public interest.

Their national importance, the magnitude of the worksthemselves, the immense expenditure involved in their exe-cution, and the great interests depending on their success,together with the natural uncertainty that must always cha-racterise so bold an extension of novel principles, almostindeed to their ultimate limit, were all circumstances suffi-cient to command considerable public attention, while theimportance of the principles themselves, which have already ju

become of such general application as to influence materiallythe whole science of engineering,—and confirmed, as theyare, by an elaborate series of experiments unparalleled fortheir magnitude in experimental philosophy,—has alreadyattracted the general notice of the scientific world, and hasgiven rise to much valuable investigation, which will not fail,in due time, still further to add to our rapidly increasingstore of practical knowledge.

It is a remarkable fact, that Mr. Telford in 18"20, andMr. Stephenson in 1849—whose two bridges are only onemile asunder—have each been compelled to effect the passageover the wide and rocky bed of the Menai Straits, not onlyby new and untried expedients, but also to extend suchexpedients to limits which will probably seldom have to beexceeded. Hence their history becomes doubly importantand interesting.

The reader who is unacquainted with the locality must bearin mind that the Island of Anglesey is separated from the main-land by a rocky and precipitous channel, whose general direc-tion, from Carnarvon Bay to Beaumaris Bay, is from south-

i.