SUSPENSION BRIDGE ACROSS THE DANUBE.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 7, 19 July 1845, Page 4

SUSPENSION BRIDGE ACROSS THE DANUBE.

We are glad to learn from a correspondent at Pesth, that the magnificent works of the suspension bridge are progressing in the most satisfactory manner, under the sole direction of our ■ countryman, Mr. Tierney Clark, the talented engineer and constructor of Hammersmith Bridge. It is almost unnecessary to observe that the arduous undertaking of the erection of a permanent bridge across that deep, wide, and rapid river, the Danube, will connect the ancient city of i Buda with Pesth, the flourishing and rising capi-j tal of Hungary. Previously there was only aj communication by a bridge of boats,— removed in the winter, — the passage of \s Inch was 60 hazardous that it is calculated one hundred lives were lost by it annually. The difficulties attending the construction of a permanent bridge have hitherto generally been considered insurmountable. The plan originated with that patriotic nobleman Count Stephen Szcchen/i.. At a time when a portion of the Paris press has been enviously attempting to depreciate by every false lepresentation, British mechanism and ingenuity, the successful progiess of this stupendous woik, guided by Biitish scientific skill, and executed by British workmen at so remote a distance from home, and in a moie ngoious climate, must be mortifying to the pride of our continental detractors, and highly flattering to us. A stone bridge, the expenses to be defrayed by a toll, from which no one shall be exempt, wascanied by Count Szechenzi, after a severe contest of three yeais in the Diet. Never was there snch an innovation as this heard of in Hungary since the Danube beyan its course. A Hungarian nobleman is privileged by his rank from the payment of taxes of all kinds. Slight as this incident may appear to an Englishman, it may probably lead the way to many useful reforms in that country, on account of the principle of equal taxation which it involves. Our correpondent gives the following interesting details. •' One of the greatest difficulties the engineer has had to contend with, has been the construction of the coffer-dam in this deep and rapid river, which at Pesth runs six to seven English miles an hour. The depth of water at its lowest j state is twenty feet, but it has never been so low as that within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. At the same time the river is liable to serious overflowings, which are most prevalent about the time of the breaking up of the ice, when the snow on the distant mountains begins to thaw suddenly. In the year 1638, in the month of March, the river rose to the unprecedented height of thirty feet si\ inches above low water mark, and inundated the whole city of Pesth, and the lower portions of ancient Buda, carrying away the darn 3 and embankments which had been raised ro guard against such a calamity, levelling houses w ith the ground and occasioning a great loss of life and property. " The continual fluctuations of such a river was not the only difficulty that the engineer has had to contend with, for in the winter the river is generally frozen over several feet thick, and which, when broken up by a sudden thaw, is carried onwards with an inconceivable force, sometimes forming whole fields of ice, an English mile in length, of great width and immense thickness} andice-beigs, some as high as eleven feet. To resist this tiemendous violence, the coffer dams, with proportionable ice-breakers, were constructed at an immense cost, and they have nobly done their work. " It is hardly possible to give an adequate idea of the vast power that a float of ice attainswhon hurried along by an impetuous torrent; its force is irresistible, and in our river was considered insurmountable, until Mr. Tierney Clark carried out his able design of building gigantic cofferdams, and ice-breakers, having the largest dimensions of any ever executed. To give some idea of their immense size, it will not be our of place, to mention that in August, 1542, the time the foundation stone was laid, the dam for the retaining pier on the Pesth shore afforded sitting accommodation for 3,000 persons, and standing room for 2.000 more, making a total of 5,000 persons in the interior of the dam who witnessed the ceremony. The struggle in the winter between, the mass of it c and the cofferdams for the mastery was most imposing. For days the ice became fixed between the dams ; doubts and apprehensions were freely expressed for their fate, while the inhabitants on either shore looked on with intense interest and anxiety to witness the last efforts of the mighty element. The mass was seen to move and heave for a few moments, then a loud crash as of the roar of heavy artillery, which made it creak and tremble ; the icp had broken np, and heaped its fragments, of several tons weight, into the invincible dams. I am enabled to speak thus accurately of the effect, having been permitted by the assistant engineer to be present on the works, and accompauied him during his inspection of them, which he found wholly uninjured. " The dimensions of the bridge are as follows, viz :— Distance between points of suspension, G65 feet; two side openings, each, 297 feet; width of platform, 42 feet, to be supported by cast-iron beams in one piece ; height of platform above low water, 50 feet. The suspension piers or towers, are 150 feet in height from the foundations of solid masonry, being faced with granite to the level ot the roadway. The workmanship of the granite is the finest I ever saw. The stone is brought from the granite quarries ot Manthausf n, in the neighbourhood of Lintz, and distant from Pesth abunt 300 English miles. Many of the 1 ' stones weigh from ten to twelve tons. The coffer-dam for the suspension tower which has been the most difficult to accomplish, has just been completed, and when cleared there will be a clear depth of 60 feet. The piles which have been necessary to construct this dam, were all in one length, f«om 75 to 80 feet long, and 15 inches square, while ot these piles nearly 2,000 have been requtfed ; and some extraordinaiy fine specimens of oak measured 110 feet. This will afford >ou some idea of the stupendousness of the undertaking. "The oak came from the forests of Slayonia, in barges drawn by horses, and the fir timber ft om the forests of Havana and Upper Austria,

down the Danube, a distance of some 500 English miles. The total length of the bridge, wtth approaches, will be about 600 yards, and will pioduce, from its peculiar situation in the centie of our capital, and amidst some of the finest buildings in Europe, a most imposing effect. This will he the first permanent bridge with stone piers built between Ratisbonne and the Black Sea since the time of Trajan, a. d. 103, when a bridge vr as built across the Danube at the Eixen Thor or It on Gate, situate on the confines of Hungary and Servia, and where travelleis perform quarantine before entering the Austrian dominions. The foundations of the above bridge are still in existence, and are pointed out to the traveller, as well as the remains of a road hewn out of a solid rock, and. which, constructed in part of timber, overhangs the rive."— Sunday Times. ,