Alexandria Daily Advertiser

COMMUNICATION.

I was a few nights since on the shore at Georgetown, with a number of other persons, shivering in the northero blast and pelted by the hail, waiting to cross the river in the ferry boat, which was detained by the ice. The mail was stopped and several carriages and foot passengers; and many were exclaiming that they wished the bridge was built. One voice loudly pronounced that it would ruin the commerce of Georgetown, when an old gentleman, muffled up in his cloak, drily observed, that there would be a draw: the other then complained of the impediments, when Senex thus addressed him: "Young man, I have seen at Cork 100 square rigged vessels at a time above the bridge, and many similar instances in other places; but you have no need to travel to Europe: visit New England and there you will find that even two bridges are below the shipping. The man who invented a draw to accommodate those who travel by land as well as by water was a great benefactor. Can you wish the mail and the community to go a circuitous route daily for ever, because a vessel now and then may be delayed a few minutes? Calculate the loss of time and the additional expense which the government and individuals suffer for want of a bridge: let the scene before you have its due weight, and then do not forget that the bridge is to have a draw." The other replied that Georgetown was benefited by the additional stage, occasioned by the circuitous route, and by the stoppages which the ice occasioned, and by the exclusion of Alexandria and Virginia from the City market, and that these were advantages given by nature. The old gentleman shrewdly observed—"Nature never made a ship, a canal, a road or a drawbridge, and that he was an advocate for introducing all improvements for the general good"—and then, with a serious, severe tone, he added, "How can a few inhabitants presume to urge a legislative body against the many advantages to the public at large and to the majority of the citizens in the District and to the seat of government, that they may partially profit by being in an out of the way corner."