The Sublician bridge at Rome is the oldest wooden bridge in existence. It was built in the seventh century. The old London Bridge was the first stone bridge. It was built in 1176. The first cast iron bridge was erected at Coalbrookdale, Eng., in 1779. The Niagara Suspension bridge was built by Roebling, in 1852. It cost $400,000, is 245 feet above the water, 1,260 feet long. The Havre de Grace bridge over the Susquehanna is 3,271 feet long. The longest general traffic draw-bridge in the world is at Rush Street, Chicago, 111.

The largest stone bridge on the face of the earth is that finished in May, 1885, at Lagang, China. Chinese engineers had sole control of its construction. It crosses an arm of the China Sea, is nearly six miles in length, is composed entirely of stone, and has 300 arches, each 70 feet high. It is the most colossal structure ever reared by man, yet we sneer at the "heathen Chinee." The largest truss iron bridge in the world crosses the Frith of Tay, Scotland. It is 18,612 feet in length and composed of eighty-five spans. The Forth Bridge, across the Forth at Queensferry, was commenced 1883, and opened March 4, 1890. The river at Queensferry is about 4,000 feet wide at low water. The principal feature of this work is the extraordinary length, for a rigid structure, of the two main spans, each of which has a length of 1710 feet, made up of two cantilevers, each 680 feet long, united by a central girder 350 feet long. The two main spans are supported on the small island of Inchgarvie. The Forth Bridge has a total height above high water of 361 feet, and a clear headway above high water of 150 feet, and carries two lines of rails.

The longest wooden bridge in the world is that crossing Lake Ponchartrain, near New Orleans, La. It is a trestle-work twenty-one miles in length, built of cypress piles which have been saturated with creosote oil to preserve them. The highest bridge in the United States is over Kinzina Creek, near Bradford, Pa. It was built in 1882, has a total span of 2,051 feet, and is 301 feet above the creek bed.

The oldest chain bridge in the world is said to be that at Kingtung, in China. The Menai Bridge, in Wales, was constructed by Mr. Telford, 1825; its length is 580 feet. Clifton Suspension Bridge at Bristol is 702 feet long and 245 feet above high water. The suspension bridge between New York and Brooklyn is 1,5951/2 feet long in the center span, and 4,355 feet altogether; its width is eighty-five feet. It is a railway, vehicular and foot bridge.