Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1890 — The First Bridges. [ARTICLE]

The First Bridges.

The first bridges were of wood, and the earliest of which we have any account was built in Rome 500 years B. C. The next was erected by Julius Caesar for the passage of his army across the Rhine. Trajan's great bridge over the Danube, four thousand, seven hundred and seventy feet long, was made of timber, with stone piers. The Romans also built the first stone bridge, which crossed the Tiber. Suspension bridges are of remote origin. A Chinese one mentioned by Kirchen, made of chains supporting a roadway eight hundred and thirty feet in length, was built A. D. 65, and is still to be seen. The first iron bridge was erected over the Severn in 1777.

Freeholder Swallow, of Flemington, N. J., is so,close an imitator of the man who chipped the cherry tree that not one of his townsmen questions the story which he tells this week. John R. Stanton caught a German carp weighing eight pounds a few days ago. In the gills of the fish were found two hcoks and two pieces of line. Freeholder Swallow declares that the tackle is his; that for two successive seasons he has lost hooks by this same carp, and that he was about to rig his line again for the fish when Mr. Stanton “ scooped ” him.