Others came up and
asked questions."
* * * * *
The following extracts are from letters written to his wife while on
his visit to Lord Rosse at Parsonstown in Ireland. On the way he
stopped at Bangor and looked at the Tubular Bridge Works, which are
thus referred to: "Stopped at Bangor, settled _pro tem_. at the
Castle, and then walked past the Suspension Bridge towards the Tube
Works, which are about 1-1/2 mile south-west of the Suspension Bridge.
The way was by a path through fields near the water side: and from one
or two points in this, the appearance of the Suspension Bridge was
most majestic. The Tube Bridge consists of four spans, two over water
and two over sloping land. The parts for the double tube over the
water spans (four lengths of tube) are building on a platform as at
Conway, to be floated by barges as there: the parts over the sloping
banks are to be built in their place, on an immense scaffolding. I
suspect that, in regard to these parts, Stephenson is sacrificing a
great deal of money to uniformity of plan: and that it would have been
much cheaper to build out stone arches to the piers touching the
water.... The Tube Works are evidently the grand promenade of the
idlers about Bangor: I saw many scores of ladies and gentlemen walking
that way with their baskets of provision, evidently going to gipsy in
the fields close by.
Pages:
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327