ge would have taken some steps to
prevent the coming disaster. They did, however, nothing of the kind,
but allowed the public to travel over it for more than a year, at the
most fearful risk, until public indignation became so strong that a
special town-meeting was called, and a committee appointed to remove
the old bridge, and to build a new one.

One of the worst cases of utterly dishonest bridge-building that we
have had of late years in Massachusetts, was that of the iron highway
bridge across the Merrimac River at Groveland, a few miles below
Haverhill, one span of which broke down in January, 1881. This bridge
was built in 1871-1872, and consisted of 6 spans, each about 125 feet
long. The whole cost of the structure was $80,000, and the contract
price for the iron-work was $28,000. The company which made that
bridge, agreed in their contract to give the county a structure that
should carry safely 3,000 pounds per running-foot besides its own
weight; but they built a bridge, which, if they knew enough to
compute its strength at all, they knew perfectly well could not
safely carry over one-quarter part of that load. In fact, the weight
of the bridge alone is more than it ever ought to have borne. The
company warranted each span of that bridge to carry safely a net or
moving load of 165 tons, and it broke down under a single team and a
small amount of snow. The company warranted that bridge to carry
safely a load which would strain the iron to 50,000 pounds per inch,
when it knew perfectly well that 15,000 pounds per inch was the most
that could safely be borne.

There are several concerns in the United States which make a
specialty of highway bridges, and which, taking advantage of the
ignorance of public officials, are flooding the country with bridges
no better than that at Groveland. On an average, at least twenty of
these miserable traps tumble down every year, and nothing is done to
bring the guilty parties to punishment. Dishonest builders cheat
ignorant officials, and the public suffers the damage and pays the
bills. Is human life worth enough to pay for having these structures
inspected, and, if found unsafe, strengthened or removed? Can we do
any thing to prevent towns and counties from being imposed upon by
dishonest builders? We certainly can, if those who control these
matters care enough about it to do it. There are two ways of buying a
bridge,--a good way and a bad one; and these two ways are so plai