and it made
possible the Memphis bridge and the future New Orleans bridge."

And in another direction yet it is peculiarly important. In
bridge-building it marks an era, not only because of its strength and
beauty and the daring of its design, but also because of its many
labor-saving devices, the inventions of a thoroughly practical mind. A
distinguished engineer calls it "a great pioneer in the art of sinking
deep foundations and building spans over wide stretches of space, that
astonished in its construction the entire civilized world." London
"Engineering" chose it, while building, as preeminently the "most
highly developed type of bridge;" and says, "In that work the alliance
between the theorist and the practical man is complete." In Eads it
finds its long-sighed-for dream, combining the highest powers of modern
analysis with the ingenuity of the builder.

IV

THE JETTIES

The Mississippi River is a great antimonopolist. As more and more
railways have been built it has been less and less used. And yet,
because it drains almost every corner of a valley which comprises over
one third of the whole United States, it affords means of
transportation to an immense area; and since it cannot be controlled by
any one company or group of companies, its freight rates can hardly be
arbitrarily fixed. Still, so long as there are impediments to its free
navigation in the shape of floods and bars, it cannot be depended on
for shipping, and the magnificent opportunities it should offer to
commerce are lessened. The vastest river system in the world, it shows
in its various parts great contrasts. One large tributary flowing from
the Alleghanies, one from the Rockies, one from the north, others from
the southwestern plains, are each able to contribute their various
products of grain, lumber, cattle, cotton, fruits, and so on. Some
branches freeze every winter; others never do. Some are clear, others
silt-bearing. From about Cairo it flows southward through the greater
delta, or land built up by its own action in ages past, and in all this
part of its course both banks and bottom are of yielding alluvion. For
some hundreds of miles "the crookedest of great rivers," it varies
frequently in width and velocity and is full of shoals; then for
hundreds more, though uniform in width, it often rises higher than its
shores, and is confined in artificial levees, which it continually
breaks down. Finally, below New Orleans, growi