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them are: the Tower Bridge erected in 1884 and designed by Sir Horace Jones and Sir John Wolfe Barry, the London Bridge (its medieval predecessor, packed with shops and houses was a virtual village on the river), the Southwark Bridge, the Hungerford Bridge, the Blackfriars Bridge decorated with the finest ironwork and massive supports shaped like pulpits which recall the monks who once lived on the left bank, the Waterloo Bridge commemorating the Duke’s of Wellington victory over Napoleon, the Rail and Foot Bridge, the Westminster Bridge opened in 1750 despite protests by watermen fearing competition for their ferries, the Lanberth Bridge, the Vauxhall Bridge sporting statures representing Architecture, Agriculture and Science, the Chelsea Bridge, the Albert Bridge painted in wedding cake colours of rose and pistachio and bearing the order for troops to «break step» when marching across, the Battersea Bridge, the Wandworth Bridge, the Putney Bridge, the elegant century old suspension Hammersmith Bridge, the Chiswick Bridge, the Kew Bridge, the Twickenham Bridge, the Richmond Bridge built in 1774 and widened in 1930 being the oldest still used on the river, the Kingston Bridge and the Hampton Court Bridge. Many bridges have been renovated over the last decade, their designes highlighted with new coats of paint.

In addition to the above-mentioned passages over the Thames there is the Woolwich Ferry there.

The Old London Bridge is the earliest bridge in Great Britain having the historical evidence. Its construction began in 1176 and lasted during 33 years. The outstanding scientist in the field of bridge building Academician G. Perederey who contributed greatly to bridge design in Russia, gave the contemporary assessment of the Old London Bridge: «Twenty rather formless piers of different thickness were built at differed intervals from one another on piled grillages which were protected from the scour by the riprap. The spans were not long and some of them were bridged by arches, the other – by beams. The bridge looked as if it were a dam on the river and caused essential drop in water level, which was of great danger for boats. Chapels, shops and many-storied houses were densely built on the bridge. It was always overcrowded...»

From time to time fires broke out in those buildings on the bridge though everything and the bridge itself were made of stone. It’s interesting to note that 650 years later when modern London Bridge was being built to replace the old one, the workers found well-preserved wooden piles under water surface.

Two unique viaducts built in Great Britain in the 19-th century represent the most vivid achievements in world bridge construction. One of them is the «Mouth Water» with supports of 35.4 m high. It was built in 1822 and the other was built in 1848. That structure was called the «Lockwood». Its supports were 36 m high and 1.36 m wide.

The stone bridge «Chester» built in 1834 is well known. Its 61 m long span was claimed as world record for a masonry bridge till 1842.

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The first cast-iron bridge was also built in Great Britain in 1779 to span the Severn at Coalbrookdale. A new page was written in the history of the world bridge erection. The bridge represented a tracery cast iron arch with 30,6 m span. The spandrel was also made of thin cast-iron bar moldings.

And the most celebrated bridge «Britannia» was built in 1850. It was erected for the railway load. The bridge has survived to our days. It is a cast iron continuous box structure (in fact it is a tube). The trains travel through it. The span length strikes even our contemporary engineers – two middle spans are 140 m long each and each land span is 70 m long. The initial design for the «Britannia» bridge was made for a suspension type. The stone towers were erected with the holes for carrying chains. These towers remain as bridge decoration because the continuous beam appeared to be strong enough to carry the necessary load.

The Tower Bridge is a symbol of Great Britain. This unique structure is a combination of a modern steel bridge and a medieval masonry structure. Its towers are built according to a lift type in order to let large ships go under it. This is the only bridge in the world which combines suspension structures with a span lifted vertically with the help of pylons which support carrying chains.

II. Match the Russian and the English equivalents.

III. Fill in the missing word.

1.Many bridges in Great Britain were covered with new … of paint.

2.The Tower Bridge is a … of Great Britain.

3.A bridge across the Severn built in 1779 was a … bridge.

4.The Old London Bridge had … piers.

5.The «Britannia» bridge was built for …

6.Along the Old London Bridge there were … and houses.

IV. Look at fig. 11, 12. What bridges of Great Britain are represented there? Prove your answer.

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2.The footbridge was built by…

3.The bridge was erected without…

4.The end parts are…

5.It must be noted that high strength cement…

6.Both normal concrete and light concrete…

V. Compare the English sentences with their translations. Is the Russian

2.The bridge was erected without b) Мост возводился без лесов. scaffolding.

3.It must be noted that high strength с) Нужно записать, что высоко-

VI. Find in the text ing-forms and define to what parts of speech they belong.

VII. Work in pairs. Put 3 questions to every paragraph of the text. Compare your questions with the questions of your partner. Answer the questions you have not got in your list.

VIII. Copy and complete the table.

bridge Wiesbaden footbridge

material

type

method of erection

lengh

IX. Describe the Footbridge at Weisbaden-Schierstein Harbour.

Text 24 

I. Listen and repeat:

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II. Read the text and say if there is a difference between bridge building in France and in Switzerland. Give arguments using sentences from the text.

FRENCH AND SWISS BRIDGES

Turning to France, in Provence we find perhaps the greatest Roman work of all, the famous aqueduct of the Pont du Card, built to carry water to the ancient city of Nemausus, now called Nimes. This is a three-tiered bridge with a total height of more than 160 feet. The lowest tier has six arches, ranging from 50 to 80 feet in span and at this level a modern road has been built alongside, on a bridge of a design, which harmonizes with the Roman work. Because of the widening of the valley the second tier has eleven arches, and as the widest arch in the first tier spans the river, so the widest arch in the second tier is immediately above it. This is the architectural centre of the structure, although not the geometrical centre. The third tier has 35 arches, and is so dimensioned that there are three arches immediately over each lower arch, but exactly four over the wider span.

It is not known who designed the Pont du Card, or when it was built. Authorities differ, but the historian M. Menard, believes it was authorized by Agrippa about the year 19 B.C. But old it certainly is, for the water channel along the top is almost blocked up with thick deposits of lime. No water runs through it today, for the watercourse is broken at both ends and the aqueduct leading to the bridge interrupted in many places; all that remains is the bridge itself. The collapse of the Roman Empire led to the Dark Ages in Europe; barbarianism took over from civilization, communications were severed and the need for bridges and the ability to build them disappeared. No more were seen for several hundred years and the earliest medieval bridge we can find is that over the River Lot at Espalion in France, whose age has been disputed for a very long time, but may be supposed to have been built by Charlemagne about the year 800. It is a bridge of crude workmanship, although strong enough, and marks the emergence of a creative art from the anarchy of barbaric Europe.

As bridges became necessary again for the movement of people, they were also points of weakness in defense, for they afforded easy passage alike to friend and foe. It became the custom to overcome this weakness, at strategic points, by constructing fortified bridges, and while only two of these are to be found in Britain, one at Warkworth in Northumberland, the other at Monmouth, there are many examples on the Continent, particularly in France and Spain. Of these, probably the finest is the Pont Valentre at Cahors in France, built in 1308. It has six arches of about 54 feet span, and although it might look more graceful with one fewer it should be remembered that this was a war bridge, and the pointed

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cutways were carried right up to the roadway to act as vantage points in defending the bridge against boats gathered by the enemy underneath; a narrow arch was easier to defend than a broad one. Furthermore, if as a last resort an arch had to be demolished, the thrust of a wide arch on the unbalanced pier might lead to total collapse of the bridge. In those days bridges had to be built very slowly, and the total ruin of a bridge would have been a major disaster.

Normal civilized life having been resumed; bridges were built everywhere, some great, and some small. Before the arrival of iron and steel there was no alternative to masonry but wood, and although wooden beams were sometimes laid on stone piers, for permanence stone was used throughout. Even in modern times it is sometimes desirable, for reasons of good artistic taste, not to use steel where stone will serve, for a stone bridge blends better into the landscape. Switzerland is a good example. The Swiss are very clever at building stone bridges, especially in extremely awkward places. Coming down the St. Gotthard Pass, which has been an international highway for hundreds of years, there is a small stone bridge, the Devil’s Bridge, springing from one nearly vertical wall of the gorge to the other. With the passing of time, this bridge became too small and too awkward for the greatly increased traffic using the road, so just above the old one, and still it springs from one wall to the other. When the river is in spate with melting snow, the passage of this gorge is a fearsome business.

Switzerland, being very mountainous, has always presented difficulties for transport. By the accident that the railway was invented long before the motor car, the Swiss, as with other nations, built railways, and had to build them in the face of great natural obstacles. A railway locomotive cannot climb the steep gradients that a motor car can manage with comparative ease, because of the weight of the train and the lack of adhesion between the steel wheels and the steel rails. For very steep climbs the railway engineer has resort to the rack system, where a pinion on the engine engages with a rack laid between the running rails. This is not a good system for regular traffic, so the ordinary railways have to be laid out with fairly gentle gradients. In mountainous country this is not easy, and spiral curves and unusual bridges are required.

The Albula Railway is one of the most tortuous in Switzerland, because of the difficult country it passes through, and has some intricate tunnels and remarkable bridges. One of the most impressive is the bridge across the Landwasser gorge which is unusual in several ways. It is built of stone, and its great height of 223 feet above the bottom of the gorge is exceptional. It is built on a curve, whereas bridges are nearly always straight; this was necessary because the take-off and landing points did not face each other. The arches are straight, but are set at an angle to each other on the piers, and the rails are continuously curved, the curvature being quite sharp for a railway, with a radius of only 328 feet. Finally, the bridge ends abruptly against a vertical cliff through which the railway passes into a tunnel.

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VII. Work in pairs. Draw schemes of two bridges from the text and let your partner describe them.

Home Exercises

I.Memorize the words from Ex. I page 93.

II. Paraphrase the following sentences using there is/there are.

1.You can see a three-tiered bridge in front of you.

2.The third tier has 35 arches.

3.The water channel is blocked up with thick deposits of lime.

4.France has many fortified bridges.

5.Before the arrival of iron and steel the only alternative to masonry was wood.

6.The Devil’s Bridge is situated in the St. Gotthard Pass.

7.Switzerland is very mountainous.

8.The Albula Railway has intricate tunnels and remarkable bridges.

III. You are a participant of an International Bridge Congress. Prepare your speech concerning some problems with bridges in your country (France or Switzerland). Then make a list of the problems, discuss them in your group and suggest possible solutions.

Text 25 

II. Read the text and answer the question “What modern and ancient bridges are there in China?”

ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE BRIDGES

The art and science of bridge building has been long practiced in China.

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