GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE. Vol. XX. June, 1842 No. 6. Contents Fiction, Literature and Articles The Wire Suspension Bridge The Science of Kissing!! Harry Cavendish Miss Thompson Russian Revenge Mrs. Ware’s Poems Love and Pique The Two Dukes Review of New Books Poetry and Fashion Farewell The Pewee The Return Home Olden Deities Perditi The Heavenly Vision Sights From My Window—Alice The Absent Wife Song Fashion Plate Transcriber’s Notes can be found at the end of this eBook. * * * * * [Illustration: W. Croome, del., Engraved by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Smillie NEW SUSPENSION BRIDGE AT FAIRMOUNT Philadelphia. Drawn and Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine.] GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE. Vol. XX. PHILADELPHIA: JUNE, 1842. No. 6. * * * * * THE WIRE SUSPENSION BRIDGE. This elegant structure is thrown across the Schuylkill, on the site once occupied by an airy and graceful wooden erection, for years the pride of our city, and celebrated as being the longest bridge of a single arch in the known world. The boldness of the architect in thus spanning a river three hundred and fifty feet wide, was the theme of universal admiration. Few will forget Fanny Kemble’s poetic comparison, when she said the bridge looked like a white scarf flung across the water. The destruction of this favorite fabric, by fire, in the fall of 1838, was regarded as an irreparable loss. The conflagration presented a grand picture. The flames were first seen towards the western entrance of the bridge, and in a very few minutes the whole fabric was a mass of fire. The wind was down the stream, and catching the flames as they broke from the flooring of the bridge, it swept them far away under, until a fiery cataract, reaching from shore to shore, seemed pouring horizontally down the river. By this time spectators began to throng around, and before the bridge fell, thousands lined the adjacent shores and covered the side of the overhanging hill, looking down on the scene below, as from the seats in an amphitheatre.