| Title: |
A Survey of Westminster Bridge, As ‘tis now Sinking into Ruin. Wherein the Cause of the Foundation giving way under the Sinking Pier, and its dislocated Arches, is not only accounted for; but also, That the whole Structure is likewise subject to the same immediate (if not unavoidable) Ruin. With Remarks on the Piratical Method used for Building the Piers. And a Just Estimate of the Expence for which all their Foundations might have been made secure with Piles, until every Stone, with which the Bridge is built, was torn into Atoms, by the hungry Teeth of devouring Time. |
| Description: |
Printed for M. Cooper. 1748. First Edition, viii,47,1]pp., engraved plate (slightly cropped), recent marbled wrappers, printed paper label on upper cover. London architect Batty Langley was incensed that the Swiss engineer Charles Labelye (1705-1781) was given the commission to design Westminster Bridge. Here he condemns the bridge’s sinking piers and “piratical” building methods, claiming that the entire structure was subject to “immediate ruin”. Revealing his utter contempt for Labelye, Langley suggested that the public would have been better off if Labelye had been hanged before Westminster Bridge had ever been conceived, an idea represented in the engraved plate to this work. Hanson, 6195; Goldsmiths’, 8359. |
