§ SIR JOSEPH PAXTONsaid, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, If there is any truth in the rumour that the traffic over the Chelsea Suspension Bridge was restricted by the Police on account of some defects in the structure; and if the Bridge will furnish safe accommodation for the traffic arising from the Exhibition and the Royal Agricultural Show shortly to be held in Battersea Park?
MR. COWPERsaid, the Police regulation had not arisen from any defect in the construction of the bridge, but was part of the original design. Mr. Page, when lie designed the bridge, intended that the light traffic should go on one portion of the bridge and the heavy traffic on another. He constructed a roadway for light traffic by placing blocks of wood on bitumen, that bitumen resting on a concrete of cork and bitumen, and thus making an elastic roadway. The heavy traffic was not to pass along that elastic roadway, but Mr. Page had constructed for it au iron tramway at the sides of the bridge. It was true, a question had arisen as to whether the bridge was fit to bear the greatest load that 858 might possibly come upon it. Mr. Page had not provided for such a load as other persons of high authority thought ought to be anticipated. The question had been under consideration, and his own opinion was that the bridge ought to be strengthened; but, at the same time, there was no reason to doubt that it was strong enough to carry the weight that would be brought upon it under ordinary circumstances. One might not like to see a dense crowd packed upon it, nor would it be advisable to allow troops to march across it, but he believed it was able to bear the traffic that would be permitted to come upon it.