Document 35, p 10
| of the River: and in a Conversation with Sir Walter Blackett after the | ||||
| founding of the Bridge was done Sir Walter observing to Mr Smeaton that | ||||
| a Rumour had gone forth, that the founding of the Bridge had not been made | ||||
| sufficiently strong Mr. Smeaton said that they had encased the Circumference | ||||
| with plank or sheet piling, as he had done in all the Gravel foundations | ||||
| of the kind that he had had the ordering off, it was all he should have done | ||||
| more than was done, but as the laying of a Solid Platform and even the piling | ||||
| itself, were things that our forefathers had not generally practised in such | ||||
| cases; and yet we found many of their Bridges standing after many | ||||
| years Trial, it must be something very Extraordinary, that could hurt a | ||||
| foundation, so laid farr beyond any thing wherewith we were then ac- | ||||
| -quainted. | ||||
| This serves to show what the opinion of Mr Smeaton was at that time | ||||
| before any derangement had happened, so that it was a matter to him of | ||||
| very great surprize, that notwithstanding the extraordinary height of the | ||||
| water, a Bridge so founded, should be so entirely demolished, in so small | ||||
| a space of time: But when the operations of Mr Wooler were known, his | ||||
| surprize ceased, looking upon it as a certainty, that the violence of the water | ||||
| having taken off the Crust of Gravel, wounded also by the excavation for | ||||
| the Piers, so as to let loose the Quicksand, he no longer wondered at the | ||||
| sudden demolition of the Bridge. | ||||
| The 3rd matter to be observed is that Mr Smeaton had at that time | ||||
| (that is of Mr Donkin’s application) finished with Success two Capital Bridges | ||||
| in Scotland, over two of the reputed most rapid Rivers of their magnitude | ||||
| in that part of Great Britain, that is, over the Tweed at Coldstream which | ||||
| was finished in or about the year 1767; & which the Tay at Perth which was | ||||
| finished in or about the year 1770 and which in the interim to Mr Donkin’s | ||||
| application had sustained many severe attacks from Floods; but without | ||||
| any injury except (in some slight degree) to the rough rubble Stone deposited | ||||
| round the Piers by way of defence, and by which being occasionally replaced, the | ||||
| whole remained and still remain unhurt. | ||||
| 10 These | ||||
Note: Mr Smeaton's Memorial concerning Hexham Bridge, p 10
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Transcribed by CTW and KS