ARCHSTONES, or voussoirs, they form the compressed arc of materials
called the ring; in some bridges they are laid in two or three
sets, forming either a double or a triple ring, 305 _footnote_.
The earliest archstones were arranged in horizontal courses, 6;
as in the temple of Rameses II at Abydos, 155;
in the Porta dell’ Arco at Arpino, 156-7;
and the Lion Gate at Mycenae; but at Gizeh, in the great pyramid of
Menkaura, there is a variation from this horizontal method, 156;
Some Chinese bridges have arches built without keystones, 313-14;
the rings being constructed with a few segmental stones from five
to ten feet long, 314;
The Romans extradosed their archstones, as in their bridge at
Narni, 24;
and this excellent practice was followed often in the Middle Ages,
282-3;
The Romans, again, more often than not, bedded their archstones
dry, without mortar or cement, as in most of the arches in the
Pont du Gard, 175 _footnote_;
but feebler masons have failed to copy with success this Roman
method, notably in the restoration of the vast Roman aqueduct
at Segóvia, 184;
and recently Spanish workmen, after rebuilding an arch of the
Puente Trajan at Alcántara, pointed the joints of the whole
bridge in order to bring the masterpiece into keeping with
their own weakness, 186-7. In a few English bridges the
archstones are moulded like church windows and doorways;
examples, Crowland, 304-5;
and the Abbot’s Bridge at Bury St. Edmunds, 305 _footnote_.
ARDASHIR, of Persian history, 202.
ARDÈCHE, in France, the Pont d’Arc at, a natural arched bridge, 6, 89.
ARGUMENTS, concerning the origin of Dartmoor Clapper Bridges, 100-5;
concerning the introduction of pointed arches into French bridges,
84-93;
concerning the introduction of ribbed arches into English bridges,
93-100;
to excuse the evolution from military bridges into defenceless
bridges, 334;
to prove that every sort of strife is a phase of war, vii, and
section ii, Chapter I, pp. 14-52.
ARMADA PERIOD, THE, Spanish cannon belonging to it used in the
Peninsular War, 334.
ARPINO, in Campania, its Porta dell’ Arco, an ancient gate with a
pointed arch belonging to the so-called Cyclopean style, 156-7.
ARQUEBUSE, and the slow development of hand-guns, 333.
ART CRITICISM, ENGLISH, its defects, 168.
ARTIFICIAL LIGHT AND HEAT, the first missionaries, 58.
ARTISTS, we need their help in bridge-building, 357-8.
ASCOLI-PICENO, and her bridges, 200, 201.
ASHFORD BRIDGE, Derbyshire, the stump of its mediæval cross destroyed
by parapet repairs, 230.
ASIA MINOR, early semicircular arches have been discovered there,
160.
ASKEATON BRIDGE, its military character illustrated in the “Pacata
Hibernia,” 260.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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