S BRIDGE IN SPAIN.

[Illustration]

Bridges are amongst the noblest, if not the most ancient, triumphs of
human art. Many of the specimens of former ages are admired for their
massive solidity, as well as for the beauty of their architectural
decoration. The present bridge, a fabric of the last century, has neither
of these attractions, though it is constructed upon the best principle of
modern bridge-building--that of having one single arch. Peronnet and De
Chezi, two celebrated engineers, who are regarded as the founders of a new
school of bridge architecture in France, made it their study to render the
piers as light, and the arches as extended and lofty as possible; and the
above bridge is a handsome structure of this class. It has been objected
that the modern French bridges have not that character of strength and
solidity which the ancient bridges possessed, and that in the latter, the
eye is generally less astonished, but the mind more satisfied, than in the
former. To these objections the Spanish bridge is by no means liable, as
we shall proceed to show from its details.

The present bridge extends across the river, Guadiaro, in the South of
Spain, and connects the romantic city of Ronda with its suburbs. The
situation of the city, encircled by Guadiaro, is described by Mr. Jacob,[5]
as follows:--

"It is placed on a rock, with cliffs, either perpendicular and abrupt
towards the river, or with broken craggs, whose jutting prominences,
having a little soil, have been planted with orange and fig trees. A
fissure in this rock, of great depth, surrounds the city on three sides,
and at the bottom of the fissure the river rushes along with impetuous
rapidity. Two bridges are constructed over the fissure; the first is a
single arch, resting on the rocks on the two sides, the height of which
from the water is one hundred and twenty feet. The river descends from
this to the second bridge, whilst the rocks on each side as rapidly
increase in height; so that from this second bridge to the water, there is
the astonishing height of two hundred and eighty feet. The highest tower
in Spain, the Giralda, in Seville, or the Monument, near London Bridge, if
they were placed on the water, might stand under this stupendous arch,
without their tops reaching to it."

"The mode of constructing this bridge is no less surprising than the
situation in which it is placed, and its extraordinary elevation; it is a
single arch of one