Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/567

BRIDGES AND DOCKS. carrying along the necessary wire cables, clips, and ropes. A bridge with a span of 100 feet can be constructed with such material, having a roadway 5 feet 8 inches wide in the clear. With a load of infantry in file crowded, the bridge has a stress of about 03,000 j)ounds in the cables and on the anchorages.

The type of bridge to be used in a given case de- pends on many circumstances. An army starting out for extended service in a country such as that covered by many of the operations of the Army of the Potomac in the Civil War — that is, rath- er a low. flat country, with many broad streams — would naturally provide itself with pontoon bridges, and, having them, would use this type wherever practicable. On the other hand, as the pontoon bridge must be near the surface of the water, it is not well adapted for use in a country where the streams are narrow and the banks so high that trouble would be experienced in the construction of approaches leading to the ends of the bridge. An army expecting to operate in a country provided with poor roads, but fairly well wooded, and having streams not too deep to pennit of the establishment of crilis and trestles, might well rely on the trestle-and- spar bridge. If operating in a mountainous country, cut up by gorges and canyons and poorly provided with roads, it should carry the necessary cables, etc., for constructing suspen- sion bridges over gaps too wide for spar bridges. Bridges have been constructed across streams just too deep for fording by running in wagons and laying the balks and roadway on top of them. Railroad bridges can be utilized for the passage of troops on foot and wagons by plank- ing over the ties and sometimes covering with dirt. In many cases no bridge will be needed. In cold weather the ice may be sufficiently thick to permit the crossing of an army. Six inches of good ice will suffice for the passage of the usual loads accompanying an army; 2 inches permits the passage of infantry in single file on planks; 10 to 12 inches bears the heaviest loads of an army. In other cases, as in the famous passage of the Delaware by Washington, the army may be ferried over in boats. A modifica- tion of this method, known as the method by raft, has also been used. Rafts with large deck- areas can be made with pontoons by lashing a number of the latter together and flooring them over with chess. On them men and horses can readily be ferried, while rafts of bamboo were used for transporting field artillery across rivers in the Philippines. A river of shallow depth and moderate current may be forded : where the depth is too great only for short distances, the level of the bottom at these places may be raised tem- porarily by throwing in brush, logs, and other material. There have also been instances in his- tory of the successful swimming of rivers by small bodies of troops.

Temporary piers or docks are sometimes re- (luired to facilitate the landing of troops and material. Sucli structures are rarely made stronger than to permit small boats, such as launc'lies and lighters, to lie alongside of them and unload. They consist essentially of a top floor and of supports, the relation between the floor and .supports being similar to that existing in bridges. The supports are generally either trestles of some type, usually pile-driven, or log cribs sunk with stone. A pierhead may be ex- temporized by securely anchoring a pontoon raft. For a comprehensive technical treatment of the subject of military bridges, consult: The Chatham Manual of Military Engineering, Part 3; Military Bridging and Use of jS'/'ars (London, 1894). An interesting chapter on the "Passage of Rivers" may be found in Fiebeger, A Text-Book of Field Fortification (New York, 1901).

BRID'GET, (1303-73) (more properly Birgit or Hrigitt). A Roman Catholic saint. She was born in the Palace of Instad. near Upsala, the daughter of a prince of the blood royal of Sweden. In 1318 she married Ulf Gudniarsson, Prince of Nericia, a stripling of IS, by whom she had eight children, the youngest of whom, named Catherine (1330-81), became par excellence the female saint of Sweden. .According to the le- gend, her husband and she vowed to spend the remainder of their lives in a state of continence, and, to obtain strength to carry out their resolu- tion, made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela, in Spain. This was between 1341 and 1343. On their re- turn they entered the Cistercian Monastery of Alvastra, on the east shore of Lake Vettern, southwest of Stockholm. The picturesque ruins are still standing. There Ulf died in 1344, but without taking monastic vows. Bridget became a professed nun, and began to have revela- tions. She felt called upon to found a new or- der to the homage of the Saviour. This she did in 1340. The first monasteiy was at Vadstena, on Lake Vettern, only some 10 miles north, on the same side of Alvastra, and on her property. It is now a lunatic asylum. They received the rule of Saint Augustine, to which Saint Bridget herself added a few particulars, but constituted a new order — sometimes called the Order of Saint Bridget, sometimes the Order of Saint Sal- vator. or the Holy Saviour — which flourished in Sweden until 1395, when it was suppressed. In 1330 Saint Bridget went to Rome, where she founded a hospice for pilgrims and Swedish stu- dents, and obtained the Papal sanction for her order in 1370, which was reorganized by Leo X. After having made a pilgrimage to Palestine, she died in Rome on her return, .July 23, 1373. Her bones were carried to Vadstena, and she herself was canonized in 1391 by Pope Boniface IX. Her festival is on the 8th of October. The lievela- tiones Sancta; Brigitta:. written by her confes- sors, was keenly attacked I)y the celebrated Ger- son, but obtained the approval of the Council of Basel, and has passed through many editions. Besides the licvelations, there have been attrib- uted to this saint a sermon on the 'irgin, and five discourses on the ))assion of Jesus Christ, preceded by an introduction which was con- demned by the congiegation of the Index. For her autobiography and the history of the Order, consult: l^criptorcs Jieriim Hvccicaram Medii .Eli, Vol. 111. (Stockholm, 1871-76; the English translation of her Revelations (London. 1873) ; also the biographies bv G. Binder (Munich, ISOn. and V. F. de Flavigny (Paris, 1892). The former treats also of her order. See Briq- ITtlXKS.

Not to be confounded with this Swedish saint is another Saint Bridget, Saint Brigit, or Saint Bride, as she is more commonly called — a native of Ireland, born at Foehart. now Faugher, 47 miles north of Dublin, 433 — the child of a man