The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-22
BROTHERS OF THE BRIDGE
 FOUNDED BY BENEDICTINES

Boston-During the twelfth and thir- teenth centuries there lived and worked In France a religious society called the
 Brothers of the Bridge" founded by the picturesque Benedictine monks to estab- fish houses for the accommodation of travellers at the stream-erossings, to eal- ieet money to erect bridges and to super- intend their construction Many bridges, generally of stone, were built by this kindly association before 1t went out of existence, but bridge building itself is one of the necessities of advancing civil- bation and many of the traditions of the ancient brotherhood have been uncon- seiously inherited by the host of young men who are even now studying the prin- eiples of former generations of bridge l builders and combining them with later discoveries in the best use of the raw materials of stone, concrete or iron. Modern teehniloglcal schools, such for example. as the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology in this country, have nowadays taken the place of the earlier guilds In producing engineers of all de- seriptions and in these schools lies the
 
 many Of the bridges of medieval France had their foundations in the formation of the old Benedietine association.
 The history of bridge building is to large degree the history of the arch-'the arch that never sleeps" as the old Hndoo proverb nsed to describe Ii, for stone arches have been in use since the earliest times while 1t is only during the last few centuries that ether materials have been | f14sn il.Hf-l 41, fiaf years since the first metal bridge-still standing at Colebrookdale. England-was erected. Few persons, however. outside of the architects and bridge builders, realize the antiquity of the simple span of ma- sorry that bridges every year q greater number of rivers and chasms and permits our carriages. bicycles, automobiles, troll ley cars and railroad trains to travel more easily from one city to another It has even been said that the civilization of a country could be judged by it's stone hrdges, for the construction of these in portant connecting links is a slow and costly process and until nation feels itself pretty well established its bridges are likely to remain temporary affairs de- signed to answer the purpose only for comparatively short period.
 Even in the United States, there are comparatively few stone briges, and these are chiefly connected with the water sup ply systems of the larger and weai,iier cities Our own railroads. unlike those of Europe, are only just beginning the con- struction of permanent stone bridges for the simple reason that the American rail- road has almost invarbaly been the pion- ger of an advance of population into new regions and has been too poor at the time to build the costliest structures; many European railroads on the other hand 444a9- laf through already prosperous and well peo- pied territory and have been able to build accordingly. On this side of the water, therefore the man behind the arch" bids fair to be an important figure in the pres ent century, fact very clearly prophesied in the number of young Americans who are studying civil engineering at the mod ern schools of technology. American bridge building of the future is likely to follow more and more the lines of the Thomas vladuet that crosses the Patapsco between Baltimore and Washington, the High Bridge that rises 100 feet over the Harlem and the famous Echo Bridge that spans the Sudbury River not far from Boston.
 Except for the fact that the strength and wearing qualities of the materials are better known and that new materials, such for example. as artificial concrete, are being studied and utilized in combina- tion with steel and iron, the modern stone bridge differs very little from the bridges built in the days of the Roman empire. The principle of the arch was known even before the Roman period, but the Roman engineers were the first to recognize it's value and to develop it as the most impor- tant of all bridge building principles. The beauty of its curved outline was so early recognized however, that the ancient Greeks used the effect In many of their structures without applying the priciple of horizontal thrust that makes the true arch.''
 This priciple. which underlles so much of modern architecture as well as bridge 1 building, is nevertheless very simple and Is very well represented by the old Hin- doc saving. The arch literally never sleeps for it's efficiency Hes wholly In the con stant pushing exerted by each block Of building material upon it's neighbor. this outward pressure starting from the key stone or central block of material and be- ing communicated to each succeeding sec