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that no one can misunderstand. To buy a bad bridge, just as soon as
your town or county votes money for a new bridge, certain agents--and
they are as numerous as the agents for sewing-machines or
lightning-rods--will call on, or write to, the town or county
officers, and will offer to build any thing under heavens you want of
any size, shape, or material, and for almost any price. They will
produce testimonials from all the town and county officers in the
country for the excellence of their bridges, and would not hesitate
to give reference, even, for their moral character, if you should ask
it. If they find that you don't know any thing about bridges, they
will, to save you the trouble, furnish a printed specification; which
document will commit you to pay the money, but will not commit the
bridge company to any thing at all. When the bridge is put up, you
never will know whether the iron is good or bad, nor whether the
dimensions and proportions are such as to be safe or not. You will
know that you have paid your money away, but you never will know what
you have got for it until some day when your bridge gets a crowd upon
it, and breaks down, and you have the damage to pay. This mode of
buying a bridge is very common. To buy a good bridge, first determine
precisely what you want; and if you don't know any thing in regard to
bridge-building yourself, employ an engineer who does, to make a
specification stating exactly what you want, and what you mean to
have. Then advertise for bridge-builders to send in plans and
proposals. Let the contractors understand that all plans and
computations are to be submitted to your engineer, that all materials
and workmanship will be submitted to your inspectors, and that the
whole structure is to be made subject to the supervision of a
competent engineer, and accepted by him for you. You will find at
once, that, under such conditions, all travelling agents and builders
of cheap bridges will avoid you as a thief does the light of day. You
will have genuine proposals from responsible companies, and their
bids should be submitted to your engineer. When you have made your
choice, let the contract be written by your lawyer, and have the
plans and specifications attached. Employ a competent engineer to
inspect the work as it goes on; and when it is done, you will have a
bridge which will be warranted absolutely sound by the best
authority. This mode of buying a bridge is very uncommon.

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