ugly. If a convex upward curve can be placed in the top chord of the suspended span, so as to reverse at the ends into a concave upward curve on the cantilever-arm, a graceful effect will be obtained; but the design generally will not be economical for erection on account of the large erection-stresses near the point of suspension. The author has made a design on these lines for a proposed 1500 ft. span highway bridge to cross the Mississippi River at St. Louis; and, as the suspended span would be erected on falsework, there is no want of economy involved. The layout with all the main members drawn to true scale has a very pleasing effect.

In long spans like this it becomes necessary to widen the cantilever and anchor arms uniformly from ends to main piers, so as to obtain the requisite rigidity for resisting wind-pressure and so as to keep the wind-stresses in bottom chords within reasonable limits. It seldom pays, however, to build the trusses of these arms in planes inclined to the vertical, principally because of the complicated shop-work involved.

The author has lately had occasion to design a number of large bridges for a proposed branch-line of the Nippon Railway of Japan. The line, which will be about one hundred miles long, is to follow the course of a mountain torrent that rises from twenty to twenty-five feet in two or three hours, and attains in places a depth of water exceeding one hundred feet with a total rise of sixty feet. Of course, falsework can be employed for these bridges only to a very limited extent, hence it was necessary to resort to the use of the cantilever. Three of the eight structures were designed as ordinary cantilevers, two as simple truss-bridges, and three as cantilevers during erection and simple spans afterwards. The last style of bridge is very economical of both metal and money, and will bear further investigation and extension, so as to be made applicable to crossings where the ordinary cantilever bridge would otherwise be adopted. Its modus operandi is as follows:

At each side of the river there is erected on false work a simple span having its chords and certain of its web-members (or for short spans all of them) stiffened for erection-stresses. Then over each pier is built a toggle  consisting  of horizontal