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building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

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Bridge is a good example of <strong>the</strong> industrial and technological level <strong>the</strong> United States<br />

had reached in just a few years. The first American iron bridge had appeared only<br />

ten years before. Dunlap’s Creek Bridge (1839) in Brownsville, Pennsylvania was a<br />

modest work which appeared late on <strong>the</strong> scene, when compared to <strong>the</strong> iron<br />

structures built in England from 1775 onwards (an example is <strong>the</strong> Iron bridge over<br />

<strong>the</strong> River Severn). The Wheeling Bridge was designed by Charles Ellet (1810‐1862),<br />

an engineer specialised in suspension bridges and involved in <strong>the</strong> project design<br />

team of <strong>the</strong> contemporaneous Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge [Figures 86‐87],<br />

which John Roebling 188 also took part in (1806‐1869). These two bridges showed<br />

not only surprising engineering progress, but were also spectacular <strong>landscape</strong><br />

machines of <strong>the</strong> time, as <strong>the</strong>y enabled <strong>the</strong> territory to be enjoyed by creating<br />

privileged observation points of charming sceneries.<br />

Road expansion led to <strong>the</strong> development of fences [Figure 85], one of <strong>the</strong> main<br />

problems for farmers and communities 189 . The first pioneers and colonists allowed<br />

<strong>the</strong>ir herds to move freely in <strong>the</strong> woods and each one protected his own crops from<br />

wandering animals. When many farmers began to settle and started to create <strong>the</strong><br />

first villages, <strong>the</strong> problem became so great that <strong>the</strong>y had to request special<br />

legislative measures. The herds created a problem for vegetable and flower<br />

gardens, <strong>the</strong>ir manure dirtied <strong>the</strong> roads, which soon became muddy and<br />

impassable 190 . In <strong>the</strong> 1860s, <strong>the</strong> States began to create <strong>the</strong> first fence/herd laws.<br />

John Jackson Brinckeroff speaks of <strong>the</strong> results obtained immediately after <strong>the</strong> laws<br />

were applied and observed: “[…] roads which were safer and cleaner and more<br />

agreeable to travel. And once cleared of cattle, <strong>the</strong>y were soon cleared of rubbish<br />

188 John Augustus Roebling (1806‐1869) with his son Washington (1837‐1926), is <strong>the</strong> architectdesigner<br />

of <strong>the</strong> Brooklyn Bridge in New York (1883)<br />

189 See JACKSON, John Brinckerhoff, American Space: <strong>the</strong> Centennial Years, 1865‐1876, New York,<br />

W.W. Norton, 1972, pp. 64‐67<br />

190 JACKSON wrote: “Here is <strong>the</strong> lament uttered by a farmer in upper New York State before a local<br />

fence law was passed in <strong>the</strong> 1860s. ”, Ibid. p. 65<br />

113

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