e being left for
the purpose. Hence each arch is complete and independent in itself, the
piers having simply to sustain their vertical pressure. There are six
arches of 125 feet span each; the two approaches to the bridge being
formed of cast-iron pillars and bearers in keeping with the arches.

[Picture: High Level Bridge--Elevation of one Arch]

The result is a bridge that for massive solidity may be pronounced
unrivalled. It is perhaps the most magnificent and striking of all the
bridges to which railways have given birth, and has been worthily styled
"the King of railway structures." It is a monument of the highest
engineering skill of our time, with the impress of power grandly stamped
upon it. It will also be observed, from the drawing placed as the
frontispiece of this book, that the High Level Bridge forms a very fine
object in a picture of great interest, full of striking architectural
variety and beauty. The bridge was opened on the 15th August, 1849, and
a few days after the royal train passed over it, halting for a few
minutes to enable her Majesty to survey the wonderful scene below. In
the course of the following year the Queen opened the extensive stone
viaduct across the Tweed, above described, by which the last link was
completed of the continuous line of railway between London and Edinburgh.
Over the entrance to the Berwick station, occupying the site of the once
redoubtable Border fortress, so often the deadly battle-ground of the
ancient Scots and English, was erected an arch under which the royal
train passed, bearing in large letters of gold the appropriate words,
"_The last act of the Union_."

The warders at Berwick no longer look out from the castle walls to descry
the glitter of Southron spears. The bell-tower, from which the alarm was
sounded of old, though still standing, is deserted; the only bell heard
within the precincts of the old castle being the railway porter's bell
announcing the arrival and departure of trains. You see the Scotch
express pass along the bridge and speed southward on the wings of steam.
But no alarm spreads along the border now. Northumbrian beeves are safe.
Chevy-Chase and Otterburn are quiet sheep-pastures. The only men at arms
on the battlements of Alnwick Castle are of stone. Bamborough Castle has
become an asylum for shipwrecked mariners, and the Norman Keep at
Newcastle has been converted into a Museum of Antiquities. The railway
has in