There we now 150,000 miles of railways in the United States and it is estimated that there is at least one bridge of 100 ft. long to every mile. This gives over 2,800 miles of bridges, chiefly of iron and steel. Where so many have to be built in a short time, aesthetic considerations are little regarded.
Utility alone governs their design.
So long as they are strong enough, few care how they look. It is, however, a considerable piece of engineering. It is one of the great bridges of the world. The work of construction has been carried on with extraordinary rapidity, and serious difficulties have been successfully overcome in putting in the foundations, which go down to 130 ft. below tide. The object of this bridge and of its connecting railways is to deliver coal into the interior of Massachusetts and other New England States as cheaply as it is now delivered by water to the seaboard towns.