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idges, sewage works, dock and wharf walls, furnace chimneys, and other works of this sort are chiefly done in brickwork. And notwithstanding that iron is far more used by the engineer for some purposes and concrete for others now than formerly, still there is a great field for brickwork. The late Mr. Brunel, who was fond of pushing size to extremes, tried how wide a span he could arch over with brickwork. And I believe the bridge which carries the G.W.R. over the Thames at Maidenhead has the widest arch he or any other engineer has successfully erected in brick. This arch has, it is stated, a span of 128 ft. It is segmental, the radius being 169 ft., and the rise from springing to crown 24 ft., and the depth of the arch 5 ft. 3 in. Nowadays, of course, no one would dream of anything but an iron girder bridge in such a position. Mr. Brunel's father, when he constructed the Thames Tunnel, lined it with brickwork foot by foot as he went on, and that lining sustained the heavy weight of the bed of the river and the river itself. If you leave London by either of the southern lines, all of which are at a high level, you go for miles on viaducts consisting of brick arches carried on brick walls. If you leave by the northern lines, you plunge into tunnel after tunnel lined with brickwork, and kept secure by such lining. Mile after mile of London streets, and those in the suburbs, present to the eye little but brick buildings; dwelling houses, shops, warehouses, succeed one another, all in brickwork, and even when the eye seems to catch a change, it is more apparent than real. The white mansions of Tyburnia, Belgravia, South Kensington, and the neat villas of the suburbs are only brickwork, with a thin coat of stucco, which serves the purpose of concealing the real structure--often only too much in need of concealment--with a material supposed to be a little more sightly, and certainly capable of keeping the weather out rather more effectually than common brickwork would. More than this, such fine structures, apparently built entirely of stone, as are being put up for commercial purposes in the streets of the city, and for public purposes throughout London, are all of them nothing more than brick fabrics with a facing of masonry. Examine one of them in progress, and you will find the foundations and vaults of brickwork, and not only the interior walls, but the main part of the front wall, executed in brickwork, and the ston
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