TRACT V.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS, PROPOSED BY THE SELECT COM-MITTEE OF PARLIAMENT, RELATIVE TO A PROPOSAL FORERECTING A NEW IRON BRIDGE, OF A SINGLE ARCHONLY, OVER THE RIVER THAMES, AT LONDON, INSTEADOF THE OLD LONDON BRIDGE.

AMONG the various means of improving the port of Lon-don, which have lately been devised, was one by removing theold inconvenient London bridge, and erecting another in itsstead, which might be more commodious, and better accord-ing with the improved state of the port. Several projectswere given in to the Committee of Parliament, appointed toconsider those improvements, among which was one pro-posed by Messrs. Telford and Douglass, to be of a singlearch, made of cast iron, which the Committee so far noticed,as to order engravings to be made of the design, and, formore safety, to issue a set of questions, concerning this ex-traordinary project, to he sent to several ingenious profes-sional and literary men, requesting their answers to all or anyof them, within a limited time.

The present tract contains my answers, which were de-livered in, to those questions, and for which I was honouredwith the thanks of the Committee ; which answers are heregiven as a proper appendix, among other articles, to the essayon bridges in the first Tract.

The situation proposed for this new bridge, is about 200yards above the old bridge, which brings it to run nearly ina line with the Royal Exchange, and with the wide part ofthe main street of the Borough of Southwark. This is thenarrowest part of the river, being here but 900 feet over.It was also proposed to narrow the river still more in this