can boast of so splendid a country seat. The buildings, with the necessary enclosures, cover an area of nearly ten acres. The establishment includes, besides the lodging-rooms for the inmates, and an immense dining hall, capable of accommodating more than 500 persons-workshops, where the inmates find employment; an asylum and a school for male and female children; an obstetric department, with the requisite appliances; an hospital for the sick and the insane; an extensive library, both medical and miscellaneous; a depository for manufactures, &c. A farm of about 170 acres surrounds the establishment. The whole cost of the buildings and grounds was $850,000. The average number of the inmates is about 1,500, increasing to nearly 2,000 in winter, and diminished in the summer. The establishment is governed by 12 directors; and is under the more immediate management of a superintendent and matron. The students of the various medical schools in the city enjoy the advantage of weekly clinical lectures given here by their professors.

Wire Suspension Bridge.

The new Wire Suspension Bridge crosses the Schuylkill at Fairmount, and occupies the site of Mr. Wernwag's bridge, which was burned down three or four years since. Several chain bridges of cheap construction have been used for some years in the U. States, but this is the first specimen of a suspension bridge erected in this country in which the principles of this graceful style have been fully carried out in a scientific and workmanlike manner; although they have been common in Europe for twenty years past. This bridge was erected at the expense of the county by Charles Ellet, Esq., civil engineer, who furnished the plan, and contracted for the work at $50,000. It was opened for travel in the spring of 1842, and its strength has been fully tested. The length between the abutments is 343 feet, and between the supporting rollers at the apex of the columns 357 feet; width of floor and foot-ways 27 feet. There are five distinct cables on each side, each containing 260 strands of wire about 1-8 of an inch in diameter. Each cable is 2 5-8 inches diameter, weighs 4 tons, is 650 feet in length, and is capable of sustaining a weight of 800 tons. The perpendicular cables or ropes by which each floor-beam is suspended from the cables are also made of small wires, and are 1 inch in diameter, each capable of sustaining 2 tons; there are 17 of these to each cable. The larger cables pass over iron rollers on the pillars, which tend to equalize the tension, and are fastened around numerous stout iron bars transversely imbedded in the solid rock, or in an immense body of masonry. The towers are of massive blocks of granite, quarried in Maine. The cables are covered with a coating of peculiar composition to protect them from rust. The whole of the iron was made of Juniata ore at Easton, Penn. The former bridge which stood on this site, was famous in the annals of bridge architecture. It consisted of a single arch of wood, of 340 feet span, the longest wooden arch by 96 feet in the world! It was 50 feet wide at the abutments, and 35 feet in the centre, being braced,

by this variation in width, against lateral pressure. A view of it may be seen in the large engraving of Fairmount. It was finished in 1813, at a cost of $120,000, by Lewis Wernwag, the architect, who has since erected many fine bridges throughout the United States, but none on so bold a plan as this. It was originally owned by a company, of which the late Jacob Ridgway was president.

The Permanent bridge across the Schuylkill at Market-st. was erected by a company incorporated in 1798, at an expense of $275,000, including the cost of the site. It was considered a famous piece of architecture in its day, and still maintains its reputation for strength, though structures now abound throughout the state far exceeding it in magnitude of design. It was remarkable, however, for the numerous obstacles with which the builders were met in sinking the piers, especially the western one, which is sunk, says Dr. Maese, "in a depth of water unexam. pled in hydraulic architecture, the top of the rock on which it stands being 41 feet below common high tides." Both piers were built within coffer dams, and all the ingenuity of hydraulic engineers was severely tested, as well as the perseverance of the company.

The Fairmount Water Works, justly the pride of Philadelphia, are situated on the left bank of the Schuylkill, about two miles northwest from the heart of the city. The name of this enchanting spot was conferred in the earliest days of the province, and Wm. Penn " had his eye, but not his heart, on it" for a country seat. The simple process by which the city is supplied with water is by means of a dam thrown across the Schuylkill, the water-power from which turns six large wooden wheels, which keep in operation six forcing pumps to raise the water from the pool of the dam 92 feet to the four reservoirs on the summit of the hill. These reservoirs, which are about 100 feet above tide, and 56 feet above the highest ground in the city, are capable of containing about 22,000,000 of gallons. From the reservoirs the water is distributed throughout the city by iron pipes, the aggregate length of which is about 110 miles. Only a part of the pumps are ordinarily in use at the same time. The average daily consumption of water for public and private use is about 4,000,000 of gallons. Each private family pays $5 a year for the use of the water. On the summit and slopes of the hill neat gravel walks and staircases are arranged, with here and there a graceful balcony for repose; and at the base of the precipice, in the spaces not occupied by the machinery, a beautiful garden has been laid out, tastefully adorned with flowers, shrubbery, statues, and fountains. From the summit a magnificent prospect is enjoyed of the city, of the splendid public institutions that encircle it, of the Schuylkill, with its canals, and its beautiful bridges, and the romantic scenery of its valley. It is not surprising that the place should be a favorite resort for strangers and citizens.

Dr. Franklin had foreseen the want of pure water that would be felt, as the city became densely populated; and by his will provided that one of his accumulative legacies, after 100 years, should be used for introducing the waters of Wisahiccon cr. to the city. The suggestion was more useful than the legacy: the attention of the citizens was turned to the subject; and one of the objects of the old Schuylkill and Delaware canal, incorporated in 1792, two years after Franklin's death, was to introduce the water of the Schuylkill into the city, from the level

* Jacob Ridgway, who died in

1843, has been regarded as the wealthiest man in Pennsylvania since Stephen Girard. His property is valued at about $6,000,000, and is of various kinds; all of which is the result of a long life of untiring industry and perseverance. In early life he was a ship-carpenter. He subsequently was appointed U. S. Consul at Antwerp, where he resided during a portion of the great war of the European powers, and when the rights of American citizens stood in need of protection from the blind encroachments of angry bellige rents. After residing a short time in Paris, he returned to the United States, where he continued engaged in laudable and useful enterprises to the day of his death. His real property is very extensive, lying in various parts of the Union, but principally in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. His heirs are a son and two daughters, Mrs. Dr. Rush, and Mrs. Roatch. The latter is a widow. Mr. Ridgway is represented as an amiable, kind-hearted man, kind to his workmen, indulgent to his tenants, and liberal towards his friends and the distressed.

of Conshohocken. This attempt failed. The Wisahiccon project was also deemed too costly, at that day. In 1799, an apparatus was devised by Mr. Latrobe, the engineer, at the expense of the city, for raising water by means of a steam-engine, situated on the Schuylkill, at the foot of Chestnut-st. This engine raised the water 54 feet, into a tunnel, which conducted it to Centresquare; where it was again raised, by another steam-engine, into a distributing reservoir. About 700,000 gallons were raised in twenty-four hours, and distributed, by wooden pipes, through the city. This affair cost the city about $500,000, and the annual cost, in 1811, was near $30,000; of which only about one-third was reimbursed by water-rents, the remainder being raised by a

tax.

In 1812-15, a new steam-engine was erected at Fairmount, in the large edifice still standing there; and one or more of the present reservoirs were constructed on the top of the hill. This concern cost an additional $350,000; but it yielded, in three or four years, to the present cheap and simple plan. This plan had been in use, at the Moravian town of Bethlehem, ever since 1752 Like Columbus's device with the egg, its simplicity is such that every one now wonders why it was not sooner thought of in Philadelphia. To accomplish the object, it became necessary for the city to purchase the mill-sites, destroyed at the falls above, for $150,000; and also to procure from the Schuylkill Navigation Co. their exclusive privilege of damming the river, which was granted, on condition that the city should construct the short canal and locks, on the western side. The works were commenced in 1819, and the first water was raised in July, 1822. An immense amount of labor and powder was expended, in cutting down the rocky base of the precipice, that originally extended quite to the river. Since the city commenced the work, constant improvements and additions have been annually made, until the total expenditure at Fairmount, since 1819, had amounted, in 1840, to nearly one and a half millions of dollars-nearly all of which had been reimbursed by the water-rents. The daily expenses for supplying the same quantity of water now used, by steam, would be about $200 per day; by water-power it is only from $7 to $10. Among the expenses of the old steam-works, during the whole term of its use, nearly $900 were charged for whiskey-whether for raising the steam or not does not appear. The present works use nothing but cold water.

The Eastern Penitentiary is situated on elevated ground about two miles northwest from the city, and half a mile east of Fairmount. A wall of thirty feet high encloses an area of 640 feet square, or about ten acres. The edifices are constructed of stone in heavy masses. Every room is vaulted and fire-proof. The buildings for the keeper and the officers make a part of the front wall on each side of the centre. The octangular tower 80 feet high over the entrance, contains the alarm-bell and clock, and affords a point of observation over the whole premises. In the centre of the yard is erected the observatory, and on seven lines radiating from it are the blocks of cells, thus permitting the sentinel in the observatory to observe any movement in either of the long corridors. Connected with each cell on the outside is an exercising yard, the entrance to which from the cell is by double doors. The prisoner may be seen by the keeper through a small orifice (1-4 of an inch in diameter) in the passage way, widening in a conical form so as to command a view of any part of the cell. Food is passed through a small drawer inserted in the door of each cell. Ventilation, light, and cleanliness, are secured by very inge. nious contrivances in each cell, which at the same time permit no communication between the convicts. The corner-stone of the penitentiary was laid on the 23d May, 1823. The architect was Mr. John Haviland.

It was originally designed by the legislature, in its efforts to reform the penal code, that convicts should be confined in perfect solitude, without occupation of any sort; and both the peni