Английский для бакалавров. Зарубина Л.П - 209 стр.

UptoLike

ВУЗ: 

ТулГУ | Тула

Составители: 

Рубрика: 

209
attack, so the monks began to build bridges at such places. Gradually, during the
Middle Ages, they taught others how to build.
The new medieval bridges were not as grand as the Roman bridges. Early ones
were of the wooden-beam type, built on stone piers or wooden piles. War and relig-
ion both had their effect on most medieval bridges. Chapels were often built close to
bridges, fortresslike towers guarded the bridges' approaches, and the roadway was
narrowed at strategic points to make defense easier.
By the twelfth century, some people were once again beginning to experiment
with different kinds of bridge building, and in London an ambitious builder named
Peter Colechurch was planning one of the most famous of all bridges - Old London
Bridge.
Timber bridges spanning the Thames River at London had been alter-
nately constructed and destroyed ever since the tenth century, when Norsemen
.sailed up the Thames, fastened their lines to a bridge’s piling, then rowed down-
stream and pulled the bridge down.
Toward the end of the twelfth century, however, such invasions were no longer
a threat, and London was becoming an increasingly important city. When Colechurch
put forward his plans for a masonry arch bridge, it was exactly what the Londoners
wanted. A fund drive was an immediate success, with subscriptions pouring in from
rich and poor alike. Building began in 1176, and the bridge was finished thirty-four
years later.
The old nursery rhyme says:
London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down,
Falling down...
Amazingly, it didn't! London Bridge was crude and clumsy looking — just over
936 feet long, with 19 pointed arches that varied in width from 15 feet to 34 feet, 5
inches. Not one of the piers matched any other, and all were more than half as wide
as the arches that sprang from them.
This meant that the openings through which the waters of the tidal river rushed
were relatively small. Water funneled through them with great velocity, making the
passage of boats about as chancy as shooting the rapids in a mountain stream. In fact,
maneuvering a boat through one of these arches was called “shooting the bridge” and
a popular saying was “London Bridge is made for wise men to go over and fools to
go under.”
Almost every kind of structure one can think of was built on London Bridge.
There were gateways at each end and a chapel on the central pier. Houses were
added, built on supports over the piers; there were a hundred of them, including
buildings that straddled the roadway. In most of the buildings, merchants had shops
on the roadway level and lived in the upper floors.
The seventh span from the south bank was a drawbridge. Upon the drawbridge
pier, which was one of the larger piers, Nonesuch House was erected. It was called
Nonesuch because nothing like it had been seen before. This four-story house was
brought in pieces from Holland and then fastened together with wooden pegs. During
the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. it became one of the most fashionable addresses in

Страницы