The bridge was six years in building, was finished in 1805, and cost in work and materials two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. The scite was purchased from the corporation of Philadelphia for forty thousand dollars.
This is the only covered wooden bridge we know of, excepting one over the Limmat in Switzerland, built by the same carpenter who erected the so much celebrated bridge of Schauffhausen, since destroyed, the model of which I have seen, and I think this of Schuylkill deserves the preference both for simplicity and strength. It is 550 feet long, and the abutments and wing walls are 750, making in all 1300 feet; the span of the middle arch is 195 feet, and that of the other two 150 each; it is 42 feet wide; the carriage way is 31 feet above the surface of the river, and the lower part of the roof is 13 feet above the carriage way; the depth of the water to the rock at the western pier is 42 feet, and at the eastern 21 feet.—The amount of the toll, which is very reasonable, was 14,600 dollars the first year after it was finished, which must increase very much in a country so rapidly improving. The proprietors are a company who have built commodious wharves on each side of the river, both for protection to the abutments of the bridge, and for the use of the city.[1]
- ↑ For a statistical account of the Schuylkill permanent bridge, the reader is referred to a new and valuable work, the "Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society," vol. i, and to Biddle's "Young Carpenter's Assistant." As a specimen of the difficulties, and uncommon perseverance of the company in building the Schuylkill bridge, we give the following instance: The British troops when at Philadelphia had formed a bridge of boats over the Schuylkill, one of which had been accidentally sunk in 1777, twenty-eight feet below common low water. It occupied a part of the area of the western coffer dam, with one end projecting under two of the piles of the inner row, and had nearly rendered the erection abortive. It was first discovered on pumping out the dam, in 1802; and was perfectly sound, after the lapse of 25 years. The iron work had not the least appearance of rust, or the wood (which was common oak) of decay. The taking this boat to pieces, the straining the dam, and the leaks in consequence, were the chief
