A view is given of the Aqueduct of Spoleto, in Italy. The bridge supporting this Aqueduct is remarkable for the slender form of the piers and their great height; being only ten and a half feet thick and two hundred and fifty feet high to the base of the arches. This Aqueduct was built by the Goths, a people who gave a model for Church Architecture which is much admired at the present day. It is said that they borrowed the idea of the form of their arch from the opening beneath an arbor of trees. The plan of the bridge for the Croton Aqueduct at Harlem River has been criticised on account of the small thickness of the piers as compared with their height, and because they were not made piers of equilibrium; that is to say, having their bases broader, so as to include the line of thrust of the arches, so that if a portion of the bridge were removed, the remainder of the arches and piers would maintain their position. By the present plan the permanency of any one individual arch may be considered to depend upon that of the whole structure.[1] The Aqueduct of Spoleto, has been standing about eleven hundred years and is still in a perfect state of preservation. With proper care in preparing the foundations of the bridge at Harlem River, there is no good reason to fear that it will be less durable than that of Spoleto. AQUEDUCTS OF ANCIENT ROME. The largest and most magnificent Aqueducts of which we have any account, were the work of the Romans; and the ruins of several of them, both in Italy, and other countries of Europe, remain to the present time monuments of the power and industry of that enterprising people. For 440 years from the foundation of Rome the inhabitants contented themselves with the waters of the Tiber, and of the wells and fountains in the city and its neighborhood. But at that period the number of houses and inhabitants had so augmented, that they were obliged to bring water from distant sources by means of Aqueducts. Appius commenced this scheme of improvement. About 39 years after him, M. Curius Dentatus, who was censor with Papirius Cursor, brought water from the neighborhood of the city of Tibur; and applied towards defraying the expense, part of the sums taken in the spoils of Pyrrhus. After them Lucius Papirius, Caius Servillius Cepion, Lucius Longinus Crassus, Quintus Marcius, (who brought water to Rome from a spring at the distance of nearly sixty miles,) Marcus Agrippa, Augustus, and others, signalized themselves by their noble Aqueducts. Even Tiberius, Claudius, Caligula, and Carracalla, though in other respects not of the best character, took care of the city in this useful article.