At Foo-Chow, China, there is a stone bridge, more than a mile long,
uniting the two parts of the city. It is not constructed with arches,
but piers are built up from the bottom of the river and great granite
stringers are laid horizontally from pier to pier. I measured some of
these great stone stringers, and found them to be three feet square and
forty-five feet long. They weigh over thirty tons each.
How could they be lifted, handled, and put in place over the water on
slender piers? How was it done? There was no Hercules to perform the
mighty labor, nor Amphion to lure them to their place with the music of
his golden lyre.
Tradition says that the Chinese, being astute astronomers, got the moon
to do the work. It was certainly very shrewd, if they did. Why not
use the moon for more than a lantern? Is it not a part of the "all
things" over which man was made to have dominion?
Well, the Chinese engineers brought the great granite blocks to the
bridge site on floats, and when the tide lifted the floats and stones
they blocked up the stones on the piers and let the floats sink with
the outgoing tide. Then they blocked up the stones on the floats
again, and as the moon lifted the tides once more they lifted the
stones farther toward their place, until at length the work was done
for each set of stones.
Dear, good moon, what a pull you have! You are not merely for the
delight of lovers, pleasant as you are for that, but you are ready to
do gigantic work.
No wonder that the Chinese, as they look at the solid and enduring
character of that bridge, name it, after the poetic and flowery habit
of the country, "The Bridge of Ten Thousand Ages."