six hundred
and fifty years, was one Peter, Chaplain of St. Mary Colechurch in the
Old Jewry (the church was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt).

Now the building of bridges was regarded, at this time, as a work of
piety. If we consider how a bridge helps the people we shall agree with
our forefathers. Without a bridge, those living on one side of a river
can only carry on intercourse with those on the other side by means of
boats. Merchants cannot carry their wares about: farmers cannot get
their produce to market: wayfarers can only get across by ferry: armies
cannot march--if you wish to follow an army across a country where there
are no bridges you must look for fords. Roads are useless unless bridges
cross the rivers. The first essential to the union of a nation is the
possibility of intercommunication: without roads and bridges the man of
Devon is a stranger and an enemy to the man of Somerset. We who have
bridges over every river: who need never even ford a stream: who hardly
know what a ferry means: easily forget that these bridges did not grow
like the oaks and the elms: but were built after long study of the
subject by men who were trained for the work just as other men were
trained and taught to build cathedrals and churches. A religious order
was founded in France in the twelfth century: it was called the Order of
the 'Pontife' Brethren--_Pontife_ is Pontifex--that is--Bridge Builder.
The Bridge Building Brothers constructed many bridges in France of
which several still remain. It is not certain that Peter of Colechurch
was one of this Brotherhood, perhaps not. When he died, in 1205, before
the Bridge was completed, King John called over a French 'Pontife' named
Isembert who had built bridges at La Rochelle and Saintes. But the
principal builders are said to have been three merchants of London named
Serle Mercer, William Almain, and Benedict Botewrite. The building of
the Bridge was regarded as a national work: the King: the great Lords:
the Bishops: as well as the London Citizens, gave money to hasten its
completion. The list of donors was preserved on 'a table fair written
for posterity' in the Chapel on the Bridge. It was unhappily destroyed
in the Great Fire.

It must not be supposed that the Bridge of Peter Colechurch was like the
present stately Bridge of broad arches. It contained twenty arches of
irregular breadth: only two or three being the same: they varied from 10
feet to 32 feet: som