DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0506
400 VULCI. [chap. xxi.
had rolled over the top of the bridge, and been petrified in
its fall, ere it could reach the ground 1 One might almost
fancy the bridge had been hewn out of the solid rock, and
that the workmen had abandoned it before its completion,
—like Michael Angelo's statues with unfinished extremities.
How else came this rugged appendage fixed against the
very top of so lofty a structure % The only solution is—
it is the result of an aqueduct in the parapet. I observed
the rocks around fretted in the same manner, and then
comprehended that the water flowing from the table-land
of the necropolis, charged with tartaric matter, in its
passage through the aqueduct had oozed out of its channel,
and by the precipitation of the earthy matter it held in
solution, had formed this petrified drapery to the bridge.
The stalactites stand out six or seven feet from the wall,
and depend to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet. Inde-
pendently of their remarkable conformation, their colour-
ing—a clear yellowish white—combines, with the grey or
reddish masonry, to add to the effect of the bridge. Then
the solemn castle, high on the cliff by its side, rearing its
dark-red tower against the sky—the slopes clothed with the
ilex and shrubs—the huge masses of rock in the hollow—
the stream struggling and boiling through the narrow cleft
—the steep frowning cliffs seen through the arch—are so
many accessories in keeping with the principal object,
forming with it as striking and picturesque a whole as I
have seen in Btruria.
What is the date of the bridge, and by whom was it
constructed \ Signor Vincenzo Campanari, who first made
it known to the world, took for granted that it was of Etrus-
can architecture;7 but M. Lenoir, who exercised a more
critical eye, entertained doubts of this. The truth is, that
7 Ann. Inst. 1829, p. 195.
had rolled over the top of the bridge, and been petrified in
its fall, ere it could reach the ground 1 One might almost
fancy the bridge had been hewn out of the solid rock, and
that the workmen had abandoned it before its completion,
—like Michael Angelo's statues with unfinished extremities.
How else came this rugged appendage fixed against the
very top of so lofty a structure % The only solution is—
it is the result of an aqueduct in the parapet. I observed
the rocks around fretted in the same manner, and then
comprehended that the water flowing from the table-land
of the necropolis, charged with tartaric matter, in its
passage through the aqueduct had oozed out of its channel,
and by the precipitation of the earthy matter it held in
solution, had formed this petrified drapery to the bridge.
The stalactites stand out six or seven feet from the wall,
and depend to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet. Inde-
pendently of their remarkable conformation, their colour-
ing—a clear yellowish white—combines, with the grey or
reddish masonry, to add to the effect of the bridge. Then
the solemn castle, high on the cliff by its side, rearing its
dark-red tower against the sky—the slopes clothed with the
ilex and shrubs—the huge masses of rock in the hollow—
the stream struggling and boiling through the narrow cleft
—the steep frowning cliffs seen through the arch—are so
many accessories in keeping with the principal object,
forming with it as striking and picturesque a whole as I
have seen in Btruria.
What is the date of the bridge, and by whom was it
constructed \ Signor Vincenzo Campanari, who first made
it known to the world, took for granted that it was of Etrus-
can architecture;7 but M. Lenoir, who exercised a more
critical eye, entertained doubts of this. The truth is, that
7 Ann. Inst. 1829, p. 195.