that as long as competitive, lump-sum bids are the fashion, just so long will railroad bridges be badly designed. As for highway bridges, their letting, designing, and construction are so often left in the hands of such incompetent and unscrupulous parties that, until some fundamental change in existing conditions be effected, nothing can be done to improve the present unscientific, wretched, and even criminal methods of highway-bridge building.

Concerning the prejudicial effect of competitive designing upon the development of the science of bridge-engineering, the author can speak authoritatively, because for about six years he acted as engineer to a bridge company. During that tine he lost many contracts for small bridges because he insisted on incorporating in his designs certain features requiring extra metal, which features he considered essential, although they were not called for in the specifications. On the other band, he once earned a commission of more than ten thousand dollars upon a single piece of work by knowing how to take the greatest advantage of the specifications upon which bids were requested. In defence of this action, however, it must be mentioned that it was understood at the outset that, after the selection of the successful competitor, the contract was to be adjusted upon the basis of a pound price for the metal-work. By reason of this feature, the author was able to correct later on all the weak points of his preliminary design to such an extent that the structure until within a few years was by far the best of its kind built.

This case is given merely as an illustration of how great are the possibilities for trimming a design which is based upon ordinary standard specifications, and how great is the temptation to take advantage thereof. Another way to illustrate this point is to compare the weights of the structures manufactured and built by any bridge company by the lump sum with the weights of similar structures manufactured and built by the same company for a pound price. The difference in weight often runs as high as fifteen or twenty per cent or even higher, if there be no supervising engineer to hold the bridge company in check.