Caer Howel Bridge
The footbridge linking a multi-storey car park with the new Broadmead development in Bristol is an eight-span structure crossing Bond Street in a smooth curve and was opened in 2008. The main structure is a fully welded, variable section, steel box beam supported by tapered columns that are eccentrically inclined and alternately reversed in direction. The maximum span length is 20m. The footway itself is enclosed within a stainless steel and glass canopy with inclined sides designed to enhance the sweeping curve over the road. The bridge was designed by engineers Waterman with architects Wilkinson Eyre.
Floods destroyed an earlier timber bridge here in 1851 and a replacement suspension bridge designed by James Dredge, completed in 1854, collapsed only four years later under the weight of three lime wagons. The present structure, completed in 1858, has two 73ft-long spans, each consisting of five cast iron segmental arch ribs. The ribs are assembled from five cast iron sections containing rectangular X-braced panels. Traffic now runs on a Bailey bridge built over the previous roadway and spanning between the earlier bridge’s supports. ABWWE, BW, CEHW, CEHWW, CoB
Caer Howel Bridge
This bridge provides a new entrance to the castle, a World Heritage site, allowing disabled access and replacing the main stone entrance stairway at King’s Gate. The Corten steel girder bridge, craned into place in 2008, is 24m long, S-shaped in plan and is paved in Welsh slate. The bridge was designed by Ramboll Whitbybird.
There are records of a previous bridge over the River Severn at Caersws needing repair in 1680, but the present bridge was built in about 1821 to a design by Thomas Penson, the county surveyor for Montgomeryshire. It is 18ft wide and has three semi-elliptical stone arches. The piers are protected by low curved and pointed cutwaters and the elevation is dotted with pyramidal pattress plates for ties inserted later to prevent the spandrel walls bowing out. ABWWE, BW, CEHW, CoB
Caersws Bridge
Calder Pipe Bridge was built in about 1964 to carry a sewage channel and pipework between two parts of Huddersfield’s sewage works. The clean and slender two-pinned tied steel arch, which has a span of 171ft and a rise of 20ft, was built on dry land and winched over the river using a temporary pontoon. BwS
This stone bridge was probably first built in the fifteenth century. It was then partly rebuilt in 1698 and widened on its downstream face in 1874 to increase the width from about 12ft to 18ft. It has four main semicircular arches spanning about 10ft, together with a smaller flood arch. The upstream cutwaters have corbels that may have been built to support fishing nets. BB, CVBH, OCB
This is a single-track railway viaduct built to carry what was originally a mineral branch line about 120ft above the River Tamar, and was opened in 1908. It is constructed from concrete blocks precast on site, the largest – for the arch rings – being about 5ft by 3ft by 2ft and weighing about two tons each. There are twelve 60ft-span semicircular arches standing on piers that taper from bottom to top in both width and thickness. Projections near the top of the piers supported the centring on which the precast voussoirs were assembled into complete arches. BHRB, BRBV, CEHS, CVBH, RHB
Calstock Viaduct
This 4ft-wide suspension footbridge spanning 164ft over the River Dee was built, with charitable funding, by Louis Harper to his own proprietary design in 1905 and largely reconstructed in 1988. The lattice truss on each side of the deck acts as a parapet, stiffens the bridge and is supported by hangers from the steel cables spanning between tapered latticework towers. The Deeside Way passes the north-east end of the bridge, which was badly damaged by floodwater in 2015. BPJ, CEHSH, Harper, HB, NTBB
Cambus o’ May Bridge
Designed by the engineer John Dyson and completed in 1813, this handsome bridge over the River Stour has three nearly semicircular stone arches spanning 34ft, 40ft and 34ft, and there are also six 16ft-span flood arches. On the east, downstream, face there is an oversailing string course at road level below the stone parapet; in the 1960s a concrete cantilever footpath was built outside the western parapet on the line of this string course. In 2009 a replacement 2.7m-wide steel footbridge was completed, which is supported on angled struts based on piled foundations adjacent to the existing bridge and tied back to ground anchors within the old structure. The Stour Valley Way crosses the bridge. ABSE, DB, DDB
Canford Bridge
The footbridge over the River Stour at Canford Magna was built towards the end of the nineteenth century and has a single 132ft span. The two steel cables, which are hung between cast iron pillars and anchored in large concrete blocks, support lattice girders each side, which in turn support the 3ft-wide deck. The bridge is stiffened against lateral movement by cables stretched between extensions of the deck supports and the river banks. The bridge carries the Stour Valley Way. In 2013 the bridge had to be dismantled and rebuilt so that new pile foundations could be installed and some parts replaced. DBHG, DDB
Canford Magna Suspension Bridge
This timber structure was built in 1846 by Jesse Hartley across a ship channel between two docks. It has a 92ft-long swinging section mounted asymmetrically on a turntable. The timbers were renewed in 1984. CEHN
A. C. Pain designed this viaduct for the Axminster to Lyme Regis single-track railway line that opened in 1903. It has ten 50ft-span semi-elliptical arches standing on tall, tiered and tapered concrete piers. The top stage of each pier has two rows of four projections used to support the centrings on which the arches were then built. Although the arch barrels are of mass concrete, the voussoirs are precast. As a result of some initial settlement, one of the original spans has been strengthened by the construction of two internal brick walls arranged in the form of two semicircular arches, one above the other. BEVA, BHRB, CEHS, DLB
Cannington Viaduct
Originally also known as Alexandra Bridge, this bridge was built by the South Eastern Railway and opened two years after the company’s bridge over the Thames into Charing Cross (Hungerford Bridge [qv]), this time to bring its passengers into the heart of the City. It had five tracks and a footpath cantilevered out on each side and was designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, who also designed the terminus station with the imposing corner towers of the trainshed roof fronting onto the river. The 80ft-wide bridge consisted of heavy wrought iron plate girders spanning between cross beams above four massive fluted Doric cast iron columns at each pier. The diameter of these columns was 12ft above and 18ft below riverbed level. There were five spans altogether: two outer simply supported spans of 131ft and a continuous girder over the central three 148ft spans. Work began in 1863 and the bridge was opened on 1 September 1866. In keeping with the Victorian spirit of triumphalism, the bridge was ornately decorated. Elaborate cast iron plates, with brackets supporting a footway, covered the external plate girder on each side of the bridge, and the ends of the piers were extended above the parapet line to form pulpit heads that were in turn topped by ornamental balls. Between 1889 and 1892 the bridge was widened on the upstream side by Francis Brady with two extra cast iron columns at each pier supporting additional plate girders. This made the bridge 120ft wide and capable of taking ten railway tracks. It was extensively rebuilt and strengthened again over a 4½-year period up to 1920 and further rebuilt by British Rail in the 1970s, when the number of tracks was reduced to five and much of the fancy embellishment removed. BoT, BRB, BRBV, CEHL, CLR, CR, CRT, LBC, LBCRR, LBM, RHB, SR, TBDS, TC
Cannon Street Railway Bridge
A timber footbridge, built to save pedestrians from the dangers of the nearby ford, was swept away in 1782. Work on the existing stone road bridge began in 1821 and the bridge was opened in 1823. Its three main arches are nearly semicircular and span 33ft, the spandrels between them being decorated with simple oculi. The bridge is listed Grade I. ABNE, RBN
The old bridge over the Jed Water carrying the main road between Newcastle and Edinburgh into Jedburgh dates from the sixteenth century. Only about 10ft wide, it has three segmental stone arches, a central one of about 28ft span and side arches of about 26ft span. Two of these arches still retain their original four ribs, but the ribs on the eastern arch have been rebuilt in recent times. The two intermediate piers between the arches are very wide and are protected by pointed cutwaters that step back to become semi-hexagonal pedestrian refuges at road level. The Borders Abbeys Way passes the bridge. CEHSL
Canongate Bridge, Jedburgh
This attractive bridge, still much as it was when completed in 1813, has four cast iron arched ribs supporting the 32ft-span of this 14ft-wide bridge over Cound Brook. Each half-span casting consists of the slightly pointed top and bottom chords and an intermediate longitudinal member, all connected by radial struts. Although it is the last surviving and unaltered cast iron arch road bridge by Telford, it is now just a footbridge, having been bypassed in 1975. It is under the care of English Heritage. BEVA, CEHWW, HBS, IB
Cantlop Bridge
There were only timber bridges over the River Taff at Cardiff until the late eighteenth century when a builder called Perry built his first stone bridge. This was swept away, as was his next attempt – a bridge with five semicircular arches and steep approaches. His third bridge, completed in 1796, had three main stone arches, a central one spanning 60ft with flanking spans of 50ft. However, this was narrow and in 1859 a new 32ft-wide bridge of four stone arches, each with a skew span of about 47ft, was built a little downstream. This, too, soon proved to be inadequate and was widened in 1880 by cantilevering out footways on each side. In 1930 the bridge was completely rebuilt in the same position but in reinforced concrete clad with masonry and topped by a stone balustrade and with a 70ft-wide deck. ABWWE, BB
Cardiff Bridge
New office blocks on Land Securities’ major Cardinal Place development opposite Westminster Cathedral are linked by aerial footways and bridges. The largest of these bridges is a fully-glazed structure consisting of seven individually-supported decks one above another that connect 80 and 100 Victoria Street. The bridge, which spans about 16m and is about 4m wide, was completed in 2005.
Cardinal Place Link Footbridges
The original railway bridge, built in 1846, was designed by Joseph Locke to carry the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway over the River Lune and consisted of three laminated timber arches, each spanning 120ft between stone piers, and a further eight smaller masonry arches. Wrought iron plate girders replaced the timber arches in 1868, being themselves replaced by reinforced concrete beams in 1963. This railway structure has always been unusual in carrying a local public footpath on one side, and this has now been joined by the Lancashire Coastal Way. RHB
A bridge at Carmarthen was damaged by floods in 1223 and destroyed in 1233. A much later, probably seventeenth-century, replacement had seven stone arches, six of these being pointed, and suffered flood damage in 1831 and 1931. It was widened in 1777 and again in 1829. This medieval structure was demolished in 1938 after the present bridge was completed. This is a three-span hollow arch reinforced concrete bridge with input to the structure’s appearance by the architect Clough Williams Ellis. ABWWE, BB, BW
Carmarthen Bridge
The first bridge to carry the railway over the River Towy at Carmarthen was built by Brunel in 1854. The greater part of the bridge had thirteen 20ft-long laminated timber beam spans with, over the two 50ft-wide main river openings, a wrought iron drawbridge section. One end of this could be raised enabling the drawbridge section to be withdrawn over the side spans to leave a 50ft-navigation opening. In 1911 the bridge was replaced by a steel plate girder structure with five 60ft-long fixed spans and a single leaf rolling lift section, although the bridge no longer opens. BRBV, BTBV, CEHW, CEHWW, DoB
This combined road and single-track rail bridge built by the Strathspey Railway in 1863 was Scotland’s last cast iron railway bridge. The three arched ribs span 150ft between massive stone abutments with protective triangular cutwaters and semi-hexagonal towers, behind each of which is a 25ft-long segmental arch approach span. The spandrels are X-braced. The Speyside Way crosses the River Spey by the bridge. BHRB, BPJ, BRBV, CEHSH, HB, RHB
Telford built this magnificent bridge over Mouse Water in 1822. It has three 52ft-long semicircular stone spans standing on tall tapered stone piers to carry the road 123ft above water level, the country’s highest bridge until Clifton Bridge (qv) was completed in 1864. The bridge, which was originally 23ft wide, has been widened at some time by the addition of a 5ft-wide concrete cantilevered footway on the north side. BPJ, CEHSL, ICE, TT
Cassiobury Park belonged to the Earls of Essex and, when the Grand Junction Canal was built through the park in the period 1793–1805, the then earl was able to insist that it crossed his land in as natural a way as possible. The attractive private bridge over the new canal was built in the early nineteenth century, possibly as part of the landscaping then being done in the park by Humphry Repton. It has a main segmental arch, its stonework laid radially through the spandrels, and two smaller segmental-arched footpath spans. The solid parapets between the elegant balustraded sections are decorated with carved shields. NTBB, SBIW
The present Victorian Gothic Revival castle, standing on the remains of a thirteenth-century castle, was designed in 1875 by William Burges for the third Marquess of Bute and is complete with a drawbridge over a dry moat. This is approached up an inclined timber ramp about 40ft long standing on a series of bents. The drawbridge is a simple timber bascule with a 14ft-long main span, partly balanced by a back span about 7ft long that pivots into the original pit, and is supported at its outer end by chains that pass into the gatehouse. At first the lifting mechanism was to be fully authentic but, in order that the winchroom could become Lord Bute’s bedroom, the chains were attached instead to the portcullis, which acts as a counterweight, and are operated by a windlass in the portcullis room itself. Although the bridge is still fully operational it is now rarely raised.
Castell Coch Drawbridge
The Terracotta Bridge near the garden ponds was first built in about 1765 by ‘Capability’ Brown and rebuilt in about 1868. It is 15ft wide and has a segmentally-arched main span of about 18ft with a dam beneath along the bridge’s centreline. The central arch is flanked by smaller blind segmental side arches that splay out under the wing walls. The low ornamental balustrades on each side are partly of terracotta. The nearby Bathstone Bridge, also 15ft wide and disguising another low dam, has a 12ft-span semicircular arch, the balustrades sloping down on the approaches at each end. The Brickyard Lodge Bridge, nearly a mile away at the opposite end of the park, has a single flat segmental stone arch with attractive cast iron railings above low stone parapets. SC
Old Warwick Bridge, which probably dated from the early fourteenth century as records showed it needing repair in 1374 and 1380, originally consisted of twelve or thirteen pointed stone arches. After it had been partly swept away in the late eighteenth century, a replacement structure was built a short distance upstream and completed in 1790. This handsome stone bridge, called Castle Bridge, has a single segmental stone arch spanning 105ft with a rise of nearly 24ft; its deep voussoir ring stands out boldly, and it is surmounted by a classical balustraded parapet. ABWWE, BB, BME, CEHE, CEHWM, DB, NTBB
Castle Bridge by Peter Chatt
In 1864 the Inverness & Perth Junction Railway took its line over the public road (now the A939) and through this private estate. The tracks are carried on a 48ft-span skewed segmental stone arch decorated with half-round turrets and castellated parapets linked by a tall curved wing wall to a large lodge that itself abuts the main gateway into the castle grounds and also provided direct access to a private railway platform. The bridge, lodge and gateway are all listed Grade A and together form an impressive whole. The line was closed in 1965 and the bridge now carries the Dava Way. A short distance away a three-arched ornamental bridge carried the railway over an estate road. BHRB, SG
An imitation of an old Devon packhorse bridge, this semicircular stone bridge was built over a small weir in 1861 solely as an eyecatcher or folly to enhance the view from the nearby grand Palladian mansion.
This park bridge was built in about 1744, ten years or so after the New River it crosses was widened from an existing stream as part of landscaping improvement work. The ornate, baroque Grade I structure, which was probably designed by Daniel Garrett, has three segmental, nearly semicircular arches. On the upstream face the intermediate piers and the riverside end of the abutments are protected by triangular cutwaters decorated with three heavy bands of rock-faced rustication, and the spandrels above the two intermediate piers contain large pedimented niches. The arch rings themselves have alternately projecting voussoirs and projecting keystones, that for the central arch having a large carved head. Below the arches on the downstream face of the bridge is the crest of a weir that maintains the water level in the upper part of the New River. The sloping approaches over the abutments are set behind the bridge face and the whole bridge is topped by an elegant parapet wall and balustrade. BiB, NTBB
Castle Howard New River Bridge
A wire rope suspension bridge was built on this site in 1910 but was replaced by the existing prestressed concrete balanced cantilever structure in 1951 – the first such bridge to be built in Britain. It has two balanced cantilevers, each made up of three concrete longitudinal hollow box beams cast in situ, and a central section of precast concrete beams supported by the free ends of the cantilevers. The central span is 150ft and the two side anchor spans are 36ft long. BEVA, BoB, CEHWW, CoB, DB, HBS, PCF
Castle Walk Footbridge
This hybrid structure of tied arch and box girder bridge has a 67m-long deck carrying a footway and cycle track over the Bridgewater Canal. The very shallow-rise tubular steel segmental arch, inclined at 30° from the vertical, spans 40m and is connected by thirteen ties to one side of the tapering-width box girder cantilever deck, which itself curves both laterally on a plane opposite to that of the arch as well as vertically up to mid-span. Engineers Whitbybird designed the bridge, which was built in 1995. BFB, Cor, F, NCE
A timber bridge across the River Aire at Castleford was built in the twelfth century and the first stone bridge, with seven arches, in the fifteenth century. The present bridge, built in 1808, is a handsome structure designed by the architect Bernard Hartley and built by his son Jesse. It has three segmental stone arches and is decorated with an unusual, wide string course of carved rings. ABNE, BLY, FSB, SYBBR
The S-shaped steel footbridge just below the existing weir on the River Aire was built in 2008 as part of an urban regeneration project. The 130m-long structure consists of twin box spine beams with cantilever arms each side beneath the 4m-wide deck. There are three pairs of piers, each pair having an A-frame that slopes outward along the bridge and divides at the top to support the spine beams.
Linking Stuart Street on the north bank of the River Derwent to Cathedral Green in Derby’s city centre, and opened in 2009, this cable-stayed swing structure designed by Ramboll carries pedestrians and cyclists across the river. The 5m-wide bridge has a main span 30m long and the 18m back span is cranked offline from this by 38o. The needle mast is 20m high and its stays support a steel box section deck. The bridge is designed to open during periods of high river flow, when the structure swings into a recessed section of the waterfront quay. The site is at the east end of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage area.
Probably built to replace earlier timber structures, this 13ft-wide eighteenth-century bridge has three segmental stone arches. The two intermediate piers have sharply pointed cutwaters rising to parapet level. ABNE, SYBBR
There is a record of an early bridge over the River Swale at Catterick being rebuilt in 1422 with three arches, but the oldest parts of the present stone bridge are probably late sixteenth century. This has four segmental arches and, in 1792, was widened on its downstream side from about 14ft to about 30ft. During these works the ancient bridge chapel was also destroyed. For a period around the First World War a rail track to nearby Catterick Camp was laid across one side of the bridge. The bridge is crossed by the Coast to Coast Walk. ABNE, ABTB, BCD, BLY, BoB, BME, SYBBR
The first bridge here was built to provide a level track for a double 4ft-gauge, wooden-railed, horse-drawn colliery tramway 80ft high over the Causey Burn. It was completed in 1725 but soon collapsed and the present bridge, designed by the mason Ralph Wood and opened as a replacement in 1727, is the world’s oldest surviving railway bridge. The bridge is about 22ft wide and its segmental arch spanning 105ft was the longest-span stone arch bridge in the country for almost thirty years. Although the bridge had not carried rail traffic for more than 150 years and its condition had deteriorated badly, it was saved in the 1970s as an important piece of industrial heritage and is listed Grade I. The Tanfield Railpath now crosses the bridge and the heritage Tanfield Railway passes it. ABNE, BBPS, BHRB, BND, BRBV, CBTT, CEHN, IANEE
Causey Arch
The first Caversham Bridge over the Thames, built around 1200, was a handsome timber structure that was later admired by Leland and had a stone-built chapel on an island near its north end. In 1643 a Parliamentary force besieging Reading successfully defended it against a Royalist attack. At some stage the wooden bridge was replaced by one consisting of several brick arches with a higher timber navigation span at the Berkshire end. This structure was itself replaced in 1869 by a five-span, wrought iron, lattice girder bridge that was in turn replaced by the existing reinforced concrete bridge in 1926. This has two spans of 106ft and 126ft, separated by a massive mid-river pier, and is constructed of flat segmental arch ribs with vertical spandrel posts supporting the deck slab. ABSE, BB, BME, BoT, CEHL, JLI, TB, TBDS, TC
Caversham Bridge
This 12ft-wide bridge, which carries the castle access road across the moat to the gatehouse, consists of two semicircular stone arches each spanning 15ft. The structure probably dates from about 1625 when Robert and John Smythson built the present country house on the foundations of a thirteenth-century castle for the local merchant Matthew Craddock. However, the bridge’s parapet, which stands on a corbel table, was almost certainly part of the works of 1890 when the house was enlarged and updated. The Grade I house and bridge are privately owned.
This viaduct, built by the Brecon & Merthyr Railway, has fifteen 40ft-span semicircular arches to carry the single-line track on a curved line at a maximum height of 115ft over the Taf Fawr. Built mainly in masonry but, as a result of a strike by the stonemasons, with brick-lined arches, it was opened in 1867. The railway closed in 1962 and the viaduct now carries the Taff Trail. BHRB, BMT, BW, CEHW, CEHWW
Cefn Coed y Cymmer Viaduct
The stone viaduct at Cefn-mawr was built in 1848 to carry the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway 148ft over the River Dee. Designed by Henry Robertson and built by Thomas Brassey, it has nineteen main spans of 60ft and two small 30ft-long end spans, and is 1,530ft long overall. BRBV, CEHW, CEHWW, RHB
Crossing roads and railway lines, the Gateway Bridge provides a new cycleway and pedestrian link for the Wales Coast Path between the port and town centre of Holyhead. It consists of two large-diameter stainless steel tubular arches, each with a span of 75m and inclined outward from the edge of the 4m-wide composite deck, which is supported from the arches on stainless steel cables. Designed by Gifford, the bridge was opened in 2006.
This, one of Britain’s few vertical lift bridges, was built in 1994 to carry a dual-carriageway road over the Manchester Ship Canal and commemorates the centenary of the opening of the canal by Queen Victoria in 1894. The four hollow lifting towers built of concrete are at the corners of the 91m-long single span orthotropic steel deck and, when the deck is raised, there is a 36m-wide clear opening beneath. NCE
Completed in 2005, this unusual two-span finback bridge designed by Gifford carries twin-track Metrolink tramlines on a skew over the four tracks of the Manchester to Rochdale trans-Pennine railway. The prestressed concrete upstanding box beam is 2.3m wide, with its height varying from 7m over the asymmetrically located main pier to 4.5m at the abutments. The main span is 80m long and the shorter span 40m. The bridge deck, which is curved in plan, cantilevers 10.3m either side of the central beam. NCE
The narrow lane leading to the Jacobean manor house of Chantmarle crosses the London & South Western Railway’s Exeter line, now single track, by this handsome little bridge, built in 1860. It has iron deck beams and edge girders but, in about 1907, as part of his work on the adjacent manor house garden, the architect Inigo Thomas embellished the bridge with a segmentally arched stone facing supporting a panelled and balustraded parapet.
Chantmarle Railway Bridge
There were early timber bridges over the River Calder at Wakefield, one being mentioned in 1316, and the stone bridge was built in 1342. The bridge has nine pointed and ribbed arches and was at first about 16ft wide, although the bridge’s upstream side has twice been extended with rounded arches, taking its present width to about 30ft. St Mary’s Chantry Chapel, which measures 45ft by 20ft, is located on a small island near the middle of the bridge on the downstream side. It was probably built at the same time as the bridge and was rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1847 and further restored in 1890 and 1939. The old bridge was bypassed in 1933. The line of Chantry Bridge extends southward on a packhorse bridge, first built in 1730, although its three semi-elliptical arches probably date from a rebuild in 1797. In 1460 the Duke of York’s teenage son, who was trying to escape following the Battle of Wakefield, was killed on the bridge by Lord Clifford, leader of the Lancastrian army. ABNE, BB, BEVA, BiB, BLY, BME, BoB, DB, DoB, NTBB, PBE, SYBBR
Chantry Bridge
The magnificent brick railway viaduct at Chappel was built by the engineer Peter S. Bruff for the grandiloquently named Colchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury & Halstead Railway to carry its line 74ft high over the River Colne. The viaduct has thirty-two semicircular arches spanning 30ft between paired piers linked top and bottom, and was opened in 1849. BHRB, CEHE, CEHEA, RHB
Chappel Viaduct
See Hungerford (Charing Cross) Bridge, Westminster, Greater London
Charlecote Park, where Shakespeare allegedly once poached, has two bridges. Slaughter Bridge, a stone-faced brick-barrelled structure which crosses the River Dene just before it reaches the Avon, was built in 1870 to provide access to the western part of the park. It has a main semi-elliptical arch spanning 27ft and, on each side, a nearly-semicircular 10ft-span flood arch with a higher level paved invert. The parapet walls consist of small square columns supporting an arcade. The second bridge, which crosses the Wellesbourne Brook just below the dam to the fish pond, has a single segmental stone arch and was built by David Hiorn in 1755 when the public road was diverted. NTBB
An early Scottish railway bridge is the three-arch structure just west of Charlestown harbour. This was built in about 1820 to carry a narrow-gauge wagonway, later updated to a mineral railway, which has itself long been closed. BHRB, CEHSL
Completed in 1874 for the Somerset & Dorset Railway’s singletrack extension to Bath, the curved Charlton Viaduct has twenty-seven segmental arches of 28ft span. Arch barrels and piers are of brick, but pier facings, spandrels and parapets are in masonry. There are king piers at the viaduct’s third points and buttresses on the outside of the line’s curve at every third pier. Unusually, the viaduct deck is not on a constant gradient along its length but dips slightly into the middle. Within twenty years of its opening the viaduct was widened on the inside of the curve to accommodate a second line. The viaduct is now a feature in the Kilver Court gardens. BRBV, CEHS
Charlton Viaduct
This very early packhorse bridge, claimed to be the oldest in Northamptonshire, probably dates from the fifteenth century. Its roadway, only 4½ft wide between low kerb-like parapets, is supported on two pointed stone arches each spanning about 7ft. The Jurassic Way passes the bridge. ABMEE, BoB, CEHE, CEHEM, DB, NTBB, PBE, SC
Charwelton Packhorse Bridge
Chateau Impney is a very showy Louis XIII-style mansion that was built, to designs by French architect Auguste Tronquois, for local salt manufacturer John Corbett in 1875 and has been a luxury hotel since 1925. The park includes a number of footbridges that were built about the same time as the mansion. These include two iron arched truss bridges about 4ft wide and spanning about 25ft over a stream on the eastern side of the park. In the park’s south-western corner is an unusual stayed footbridge (possibly with the conceptual design by Tronquois). This is about 7ft wide and spans about 45ft over the River Salwarpe between stone entrance gateway towers. The footway rests on the bottom booms of the twin arched X-braced wrought iron trusses of the main structure, but each truss is also supported by an additional two pairs of stays that radiate from the tower tops and are balanced by a single pair of back-stays anchored into the ground behind the gateways. Another of the original park bridges, after being found to be unsafe, was sold to the local council for £2000 in 1971 and re-erected as Corbett Bridge (qv) in Droitwich Lido Park.
Chateau Impney stayed footbridge
The architect James Paine built the three-span stone bridge over the River Derwent, replacing an earlier five-arch structure further downstream, to carry a new driveway to the great country palace of the Dukes of Devonshire. Completed in 1759, the Grade I bridge is in the grand classical style with rusticated piers, niched abutments, statues on plinths above the cutwaters and ornamented balustrade.
In the woods above the house is a mock ruined aqueduct from which water tumbles on its way to the famous cascade. ABMEE, ABTB, BEVA, BoB, FFB, NTBB
Chatsworth Bridge
Built in 1898 to carry the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway’s narrow-gauge passenger line across the Yeo, Chelfham Viaduct is probably the largest narrow-gauge rail bridge ever built in Britain. It is 70ft high and has eight yellow-brick arches each spanning 24ft, the three at the southern end being built square between shaped piers to accommodate the line’s westward curve. The second and sixth piers have pilasters supporting trackside refuges. The bridge was refurbished in 2000. BHRB, CEHS, RHB
Chelfham Viaduct
There have been two bridges crossing the Thames here since the nineteenth century. The first was built in order to encourage development at Battersea and to link this to the rapidly growing area of Pimlico. Thomas Page was appointed engineer and designed a light chain suspension bridge with a main span of 333ft at deck level (348ft between cable supports) and side spans of 167ft. The handsome support towers were of framed cast iron clad in cast iron casing pierced by glazed lattice panelling. The foundations for the towers were built within caissons sunk onto timber piles driven into the river bed. There were two flat eyebar chains each side, one beneath the other, and the suspended bridge deck was restrained against twisting by deep stiffening girders – an early use of this technique. The carriageway was 29ft wide and the overall width of the bridge was 37ft. Building started in 1851 and the bridge was opened in 1858. Unfortunately, it was more beautiful than functional and required regular repairs and strengthening. This included, in 1880, the addition of a third chain on each side by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. The bridge was demolished in 1935 to make way for a stronger successor.
The new bridge, also a suspension bridge, is unusual in that it is a tied suspension bridge; that is, the main cables are anchored back to the deep stiffening edge girders under the main roadway of the 62ft-wide bridge deck and not into the ground at each abutment. The two cables are made up from thirty-seven strands of galvanised steel wire spanning 352ft between tower centres and 173ft in the side spans. Each of the supporting square steel towers, the foundations for which were built within sheet-piled cofferdams, has a hinged bearing at its base and is an independent pylon without any cross beam or bracing connection above deck level. Engineering design was by the consultants Rendel, Palmer & Tritton and construction work started in 1936. The bridge, which was opened by William Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, on 6 May 1937, now carries the A3216.
Cantilevered in front of the bridge’s south abutment is the Chelsea Wharf Link Bridge, erected in 2004, which carries the Thames Path beneath the road. The slightly curved deck of this footbridge is supported by a shallow steel box girder. BBL, BE, BoT, CEHL, CLR, CR, CRT, LBC, LBCRR, LBM, NTBB, SR, TBDS, TC
There is a thirteenth-century record of a timber bridge, called the Bridge of Strogle, over the River Wye at this site, but this was replaced in 1546 by another timber structure. By 1801 the bridge here had a small house on a mid-river stone pier and there were stone piers on the Monmouthshire side, although the rest of the bridge was still in timber. This bridge was replaced in 1816 by the present cast iron structure standing on stone piers with rounded cutwaters. Designed by John Rastrick, it is 20ft wide and has five segmental arch spans, a central one of 112ft flanked on each side by spans of 70ft and 34ft. The spandrels have radial struts with segmental stiffenings, giving the elevation an attractive grid-like appearance. The Offa’s Dyke Path crosses the river on the bridge. ABWWE, BA, BB, BE, BEVA, BME, BRW, CEHW, CEHWW, IB
Chepstow Bridge
The bypass bridge built in 1987 to relieve the old crossing in the middle of Chepstow is immediately beside the Wye Rail Bridge (qv). The main river span, which is 93m long, consists of a steel box girder, approached across the meadows on the west by four 50m-long plate girder spans. BRWy, BW
Timber bridges over the Thames at Chertsey dated back to the early fifteenth century, one of them being recorded as having twenty-three spans. The present bridge, designed by James Paine and completed in 1785, has five segmental stone river arches, with spans of 30ft, 36ft and 42ft, and two smaller 20ft brick land arches. The solid stone parapet has openings protected by metal grilles above the centre of each arch. ABSE, ABTB, BME, BoB, BoT, CEHL, TB, TBDS, TC
This stone bridge, probably built to replace an earlier timber structure, remained the lowest fixed crossing over the River Wear until Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland (qv) was built in 1796. Described as ‘New’ bridge in 1528, it is a fine late-fifteenth-century structure. It is 16ft wide and has four tall, sharply pointed arches, all with five wide and chamfered ribs. The central pair span 32ft each, the outer ones 26ft. The tops of the tall triangular cutwaters taper in to meet the spandrels just under a string course below the parapet walls. Jervoise considered this to be perhaps the most attractive of all the bridges over the River Wear. ABNE, BB, BCD, BND, BRW, CEHN
Chester New Bridge
The North Eastern Railway originally built this viaduct in 1868 as part of a branch line to the Team Valley, but it became an important part of the East Coast main line from London to Edinburgh when this was re-routed through Durham in 1872. The structure, with its eleven 60ft-span semi-elliptical brick arches on tapered brick piers, crosses about 80ft above the Chester Burn and the streets of the town. BHRB, BRBV, CEHN
Dating from 1901, this is claimed to be the first true reinforced concrete bridge to be constructed in Britain. However, the structure actually consists of a slightly earlier 18ft-span skewed brick arch with 6ft-wide reinforced concrete ribbed arches cast over the top of the brickwork at each side of the original arch barrel. Brick parapets and spandrels completely mask the concrete work. BHHI, CEHS
This fine stone bridge over the River Till was built in 1859. Its flat segmental arch, formed of a single row of deep voussoirs, spans 61ft with a rise of 19ft, and its roadway is 12ft wide. ABNE, RBN
Chillingham Newton Bridge
There are three interesting bridge structures in the park of this ancient estate. The first is an attractive 10ft-wide carriagedrive bridge built by James Paine in about 1770. This has a single segmental arch spanning about 30ft between abutments decorated with niched pilasters. The bridge deck slopes straight up over the abutments and spandrels to form a shallow inverted V-shaped profile topped by a wrought iron railing.
Chillington Hall Park drive bridge
The second bridge-like structure is a two-dimensional sham of five nearly semicircular arches standing on the raised ground at the end of the lake, and was probably built by ‘Capability’ Brown a year or two earlier to close off the vista.
Finally, built by Thomas Telford and dating from around 1830, is Avenue Bridge carrying the park’s Lower Avenue over a cutting on the Nantwich to Autherley section of the Shropshire Union Canal. This bridge has a semicircular arch set high up between its abutments and is topped by a stylish classical balustrade with sweeping curves at each end. BoB, NTBB, SBIW
Chillington Hall Park sham bridge
Brunel built this handsome viaduct in 1841 to carry his Great Western Railway over the Bath Road. The structure has one large semicircular arch of 26ft span flanked on each side by a similar smaller arch, all springing at the same level from tall pierced piers, the structure ending with fine curved abutments. BHRB, RHB
Chippenham Viaduct
A very early railway underbridge, this structure was built in 1805 for the Croydon, Merstham & Godstone Iron Railway, an extension of the double-track 4ft-2in gauge horse-drawn Surrey Iron Railway, opened in 1803, that is claimed to have been the world’s first public railway. The bridge itself had a tall horseshoe-shaped elevation. The railway closed in 1838 and the bridge was demolished in 1854.
Chipstead Valley Road Bridge
Built in 1801 by Telford, Chirk Aqueduct carries the Ellesmere Canal 70ft high over the Ceiriog valley. There are ten semicircular stone arches, each spanning 40ft. Internal longitudinal spandrel walls support a canal trough of flanged cast iron plates. The pier ends have wide shallow pilasters and there are keystones to the arches. The well-known painting ‘Chirk Aqueduct’ by John Sell Cotman is actually of Crambeck Bridge (qv). ABTB, BA, BEVA, BoB, CEHW, CEHWW, DB, DoB, DoD, IB, SBIW, NTBB, PAC, TT
Chirk Aqueduct
This monumental structure was built by Telford in 1793. It has a single semicircular stone arch spanning 50ft, pilasters on the abutments, curving wing walls and high solid parapet walls. In 1926 the bridge was widened in reinforced concrete to 40ft, the original stone facing being reused. The Llwybr Maelor Way crosses the river on this bridge. ABTB, ABWWE, HBS
The Shrewsbury & Chester Railway’s engineer Henry Robertson built this viaduct over the Ceiriog valley next to Telford’s earlier Chirk Aqueduct (qv). It consists of ten 45ft-span semicircular stone arches between king piers, with three further arches replacing an earlier 120ft-span laminated timber arch at each end. The viaduct was opened in 1848. BEVA, BHRB, BRBV, CEHW, RHB
Chirk Viaduct
This bridge over the Thames was commissioned as part of a project to improve the Great Chertsey Road, the project also including the new bridge further upstream at Twickenham (qv). Both bridges now carry all the traffic coming into central London from the M3 motorway. Engineering design of Chiswick Bridge was by Alfred Dryland with Sir Herbert Baker as consultant architect. The 70ft-wide bridge consists of fixed segmental arches in reinforced concrete spanning between reinforced concrete piers with semi-hexagonal extensions continuing up to road level. It is fully faced in Portland stone and surmounted by an elegant stone balustrade. The central river span is 150ft with side spans of 125ft, and there are smaller land arches of 61ft over the riverside roadways. The Prince of Wales opened the bridge on 3 July 1933. BB, BBL, BoT, CLR, DB, LBC, LBCRR, LBM, TBDS, TC
Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington, built the villa at Chiswick for himself in his favoured Palladian style in about 1729 and engaged William Kent to design the garden. However, the present classical bridge over the widened Bollo Brook, replacing an earlier timber structure, was built for the fifth Earl by Sir James Wyatt in 1774. It is 16ft wide and has a single segmental arch spanning about 33ft between abutments containing wide empty niches and supporting a horizontal dentilled cornice and balustrade. This has solid sections in midspan and above the abutments, the latter being decorated with carved swags and topped by a pair of Coade stone urns. The stonework in the spandrels is laid radially, with central Coade stone medallions containing putti riding dolphins, and the steep approaches are flanked by curved wing walls. The bridge, now in the care of English Heritage, was restored in 1956 and is listed Grade I.
Chiswick House Bridge
There are the remains of two Roman bridges over the North Tyne by the Roman fort of Chesters near Chollerford. The earlier one, probably built at the same time as Hadrian’s Wall in about AD125, may have had nine spans, each about 20ft long. The second, perhaps built about AD205, may have had four 35ft-long spans. A medieval bridge was mentioned in 1333 and this, or a later replacement, was badly damaged by floods in 1733 and destroyed in 1771. The present bridge at Chollerford is about half a mile upstream from the site of the Roman bridges. It has five segmental stone arches, spanning from 41ft to 56ft, with pronounced triangular cutwaters at both ends of the intermediate piers. Hadrian’s Wall Path now crosses the bridge. ABNE, BB, BBPS, BEVA, BME, BND, BoB, B’sB, CEHN, DB, HWB, IANEE
This striking hump-backed bridge carries the road between Melbourne and Thornton over the Pocklington Canal. Built in 1818, it has a semi-elliptical arch barrel with stone voussoir facings. There are decorative brick half-columns with domed stone caps immediately behind the bottom of the arch ring and a stone string course below the parapet. The brick wing walls curve gracefully outward and downward to end in drum towers with domed stone caps. The Wilberforce Way passes the north end of the bridge.
This 12ft-wide cast iron bridge dating from 1843 has two 13ft-long spans each consisting of five ribs, the two external ones having a series of ten rings of diminishing sizes in each spandrel. The central pier and the wing walls to the concrete abutments are also in cast iron. In 1980 the bridge was strengthened with a concrete roadway slab. BHHI, CEHS
Church Bridge, Upper Clatford
According to an inscription on the north parapet of the existing City Bridge, St Swithin built the first bridge on this site in the years 852–863. It had five spans and was part of the city’s defences. In 1314 the then structure was reported as needing repair and, in 1542, Leland recorded the bridge here as having two stone arches. At one time the nuns of the nearby St Mary’s Abbey maintained the bridge and the adjacent Eastgate (demolished in 1768) in return for the right to collect tolls on all passing traffic. The present 28ft-wide bridge was built in 1813. It has a single 28ft-span segmental stone arch with alternately projecting voussoirs below a slim archivolt moulding, and is surmounted by a string course supporting an elegant stone balustrade with recessed panel piers at midspan and above the abutments. The Itchen Way crosses the bridge. ABSE, BHHI, BiB, BME, JLI
City Bridge
Clachan Bridge is claimed to be the only bridge in Great Britain to span the Atlantic, although Ireland has a couple. It crosses Clachan Sound to link Seil Island to the mainland and consists of a single high segmental stone arch built in 1791 to a design by John Stevenson of Oban, with advice from Robert Mylne. This spans 72ft with a rise of 27ft and supports a 15ft-wide road. The bridge is decorated with a blind oculus in each spandrel. BBPS, BiB, BPJ, CEHSH, HB, Doyle
Clachan Bridge
This new bridge over the Forth, opened in 2008, was built to relieve traffic over the existing Kincardine Swing Bridge (qv) and to provide a diversion for heavy lorries when they are unable to use the Forth Road Bridge (qv) during high winds. The 1,190m-long bridge has three navigation spans – a central span 65m long and two flanking spans 53m long, the remaining twenty-three spans being 45m long. All the spans were precast in a yard on the north bank, then push-launched across the river one span at a time – the final stage, involving 27,000 tons of deck, being the world’s second longest incrementally launched concrete bridge. Structurally, the bridge consists of a deep spine beam with curved haunches to short cantilever wings. BPJ, NCE
This swing bridge was built in 1862 by the Inverness and Rossshire Railway to carry a single line at a skew over the Caledonian Canal. The original swinging structure was replaced in 1909 and now consists of twin 126ft-long steel plate girders with curved top booms which span 78ft over the canal from a pivot point built out from the eastern bank. BHRB, BRBV, BPJ, CEHSH
A wooden pier was opened here in 1871 as a passenger landing stage and in 1893 the structure was largely rebuilt and extended to 1,180ft. At the same time a polygonal pier-head with iron pavilion was also built. It is claimed to be Britain’s widest pier. BSP1, BSP2, CEHE, FFP, PoS, SP
This bridge, probably built in the eighteenth century, has a single segmental stone arch spanning 21ft across Clapham Beck. It carries a 3½ft-wide pathway between 3ft-high parapet walls that have noticeable undulations. ABNE, BiB, JBPT, NTBB, PBE
Clapham Packhorse Bridge
The present Clare Bridge was built by William Cubitt in 1813 to replace an earlier structure over the River Stour on the same site. The bridge has a central span of 13½ft with side spans of 11ft. All three spans consist of seven cast iron semi-elliptical ribs linked by cross ribs at the crown and through bolts at the centre of the spandrels. The Stour Valley Path passes the southern end of the bridge. CEHE, IB
This stone structure, the oldest bridge in Cambridge, was designed by Thomas Grumbold (for which he was paid 3 shillings) and completed in 1640. It is about 14ft wide between its classical balustrades, which are decorated with large stone balls. There are three arches, each spanning about 21ft, which were originally nearly semicircular. However, as a result of settlement, the western arch is noticeably distorted and the parapet over the central arch sags. Despite this, both Jervoise and de Maré considered this to be one of the most attractive seventeenth-century bridges in England, and it is listed Grade I. ABMEE, BBPS, BEVA, BiB, BME, BoB, CB, CEHE, CEHEA, DB, NTBB
Clare College Bridge
An earlier Saxon bridge here across Hogsmill River was replaced in about 1175 by a new bridge, which itself is now one of England’s oldest bridges. It has three semicircular stone arches each spanning about 8ft and was originally just 8ft wide but in 1758 it was widened on its upstream face with brick arches. The parapet wall above the northern pier is topped by a decorative column. The bridge was widened again to about 45ft in 1852, when the attractive ornamental railings on the eastern side were added, and now carries Wadbrook Street. A Tudor building stands adjacent to the southern arch on the downstream face. The bridge is listed Grade I.
Clattern Bridge
Cleddau Bridge was built across the wide and deep estuary of the Milford Haven to replace a ferry service. Its total length is 2,688ft, consisting of a 700ft-long main span, with a 448ft-long central suspended section, and anchor spans that are 490ft long. There are also four further 252ft-long approach spans, three on the south and one on the north side. The structure in all spans is a single, trapezoidal, welded steel box girder, 20ft deep by 41ft wide at the top and 22ft wide at the bottom, the top flange continuing out on each side to support footways and services. In 1970, during erection of the box girders by progressively push-launching and cantilevering out additional prefabricated sections, the cantilever folded at its pier support and collapsed, killing four men. The much-strengthened toll bridge was eventually completed in 1975. BA, BE, CEHW, Cleddau Bridge
The graceful Grade I Clevedon Pier, designed by John William Grover and Richard J. Ward, was built in 1869, its pierhead being rebuilt in 1893 at an angle of about 15° to lie parallel with the fast-running tidal flow. There are eight 100ft-long spans constructed partly from patent Barlow wrought iron rail sections. Pairs of these rails, riveted back-to-back, make up the splayed legs of the trestle piers, and these then branch out to form curved supports to the end thirds of the main wrought iron plate girders. The gossamer-like structure was described by the poet Sir John Betjeman as being ‘as delicate as a Japanese print in the mist and like an insect in the sunlight’. The two seaward-end spans collapsed in 1970 during structural tests for insurance purposes and restoration of the pier was eventually completed in 1988. BFB, BSP1, BSP2, CEHWW, PS, SP, Mallory
Clevedon Pier
Brunel designed the suspension bridge across the Avon Gorge at Clifton as a competition entry in 1829 when he was aged just 23, and he afterwards referred to it as ‘my first child, my darling’. However, work on site did not begin until 1836 and proceeded very slowly until stopping completely in 1842 when the money ran out. Construction did not resume until 1860, a year after Brunel’s death, to an amended design by John Hawkshaw and William Barlow. The six bridge chains, made up partly from the chains of Brunel’s Hungerford Bridge (qv) following its demolition, span between 86ft-high Egyptian-style towers to support the deck 240ft above water level. Finally completed in 1864, the 31ft-wide toll bridge has a single span of 702ft, one-fifth longer again than Telford’s Menai bridge (qv) of 1826. It remained Britain’s longest span for twenty-six years. In 2006, in a competition designed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Brunel’s birth, 600 entries were submitted of ideas for how a modern alternative to the famous Grade I structure might look. The River Avon Trail and the Severn Way pass each end of the bridge. BA, BB, BBPS, BE, BEVA, BFB, BG, BiB, BoB, CEHWW, DB, DoB, FFB, NCE, Barnes, Body, Miller, Pascoe
The older of the two bridges carrying the A52 over the River Trent at Clifton is an early prestressed concrete structure. It has two balanced cantilevers supporting a suspended central section of seven parallel 100ft-long beams to produce a main span of 275ft. When completed in 1958 it was the longest such bridge in the country and it was the first to be built with successive sections constructed on a scaffold suspended from the previously completed sections. A later bridge for a second carriageway, consisting of three prestressed concrete box girders, repeats the arched lines of its predecessor. CEHEM, ] DB, MBB
Clifton Bridge, Nottingham
Sir George Gilbert Scott, the master of High Victorian Gothic architecture, brought his medieval-style fantasies to the River Thames with this red-brick bridge that dates only from 1867, when it replaced a ford and a ferry. There are six ribbed and pointed four-centred arches spanning from 23ft to 34ft and separated by pointed cutwaters continuing up to parapet level to provide pedestrian refuges. A string course marks the road level and, between the cutwaters, this is supported on corbels. There was a toll at this bridge until 1946. The Thames Path crosses the river by this bridge. ABSE, BME, BoT, TB, TBDS, TC
Clifton Bridge was built in 1967 to carry the West Coast Main Line railway to Scotland across the line of the M6 motorway, which was then under construction. The prestressed concrete three-span bridge consists of a twin cell trapezoidal hollow box beam, which was post-tensioned with thirty-six main cables, each consisting of twelve 15mm high tensile steel strands. The complete bridge, which is 400ft long with a central span of 195ft, was built beside the railway and slid into its final position, the total weight moved being 2,500 tons. RBC
The crossing here over the River Avon is extremely ancient and may later have been part of a Saxon Salt Way. Sir Hugh Clopton bridged the crossing near the end of the fifteenth century. His bridge has fourteen pointed stone arches, each spanning roughly 19ft. Like all old bridges it has suffered damage over the years, two arches being rebuilt in 1524, the lengthy causeways at each end being swept away in 1588, and an arch being blown up in 1642 to prevent Parliamentary troops from entering the town. The bridge’s original 17ft width was increased to 21ft when the north side was rebuilt in 1814, and in 1827 a 4ft-wide footway was cantilevered off this new face using cast iron brackets. ABWWE, BB, BBPS, BiB, BME, BoB, CEHE, CEHEM, DB, EHWM
Clopton Bridge
Stephen Wright built the ornamental Clumber Bridge to carry the main London Road driveway across Clumber Park’s serpentine lake as part of a picturesque approach to the grand house he designed for the Duke of Newcastle. The house was demolished in 1938 and the park was taken over by the National Trust. The bridge, which was completed in about 1770, originally stood on a cascade, which was moved further down the lake in about 1830. It has three nearly semicircular arches and behind each abutment, which contains a niche, is a blind arch, all these arches having distinctive scrolled keystones. The classical balustrade ends in circular bastions.
Beyond the weir at the end of the main lake is the West Bridge, which was built in 1798 to carry a public road (now the A614) across the River Poulter. This bridge’s three segmental arches have brick barrels spanning about 14ft but are faced with masonry that includes niches above the abutments and intermediate piers and a balustraded parapet. The river is dammed between the springing points of the arches on the upstream face to form a lower park lake. The structure, originally about 12ft wide, was widened to 18ft in 1914 and to 50ft in 1931. BB, BG, BiB, CEHEM, NTBB
Clumber Park ornamental bridge
This delightful little hump-backed bridge over the River Teme dates from about 1450. It has five segmental stone arches, two of which are ribbed, and its triangular cutwaters extend up to parapet level. ABWWE, HBS
Clun Bridge
This bridge, built in 1950 to replace a stone bridge submerged by the headwaters above the new Pitlochry dam, consists of two N-truss girders fabricated from aluminium alloy. There is an arched central span 173ft long which is flanked by 69ft-long cantilever side arms. CEHSL
The latest bridge over the River Clyde, designed by Halcrow and built by Edmund Nuttall, was opened in 2006 as part of the redevelopment of the city’s docks area. It has a single diamond-section steel box arch with a 30° skew span of 96m crossing diagonally over the composite ladder beam steel and full-depth precast concrete bridge deck. This is suspended from the arch by fourteen inclined 100mm-diameter high-tension Macalloy steel bars, the structure thus looking like a network arch from some viewpoints. In 2008 stress fractures resulting from inadequate manufacture led to failures in the bridge’s hangers and the cast steel connectors were replaced with ones in milled steel. BPJ, NCE
Clyde Arc Bridge
In 1870 the Glasgow Union Railway built a seven-span iron lattice girder viaduct to carry its tracks across the Clyde into St Enoch Station (now demolished). This structure was replaced in 1898 by the present five-span varying-depth continuous girder viaduct, which is distinguished by the ornately battlemented octagonal abutment towers and pier-end turrets. Meanwhile, in 1879, the Caledonian Railway completed its own viaduct a short distance downstream to take its lines into the new Central Station. In 1905 this was augmented by a second wider structure consisting of eight longitudinal girders with three spans, the central one of 194ft. The earlier crossing was later demolished, although its cylindrical piers were left standing. BHRB, BRBV, BPJ, CEHSL
Clyde Caledonian Railway Viaduct
Clyde Glasgow Union Railway Viaduct
The first bridge on this site, opened in 1780, consisted of two timber arches spanning about 60ft between masonry abutments and a central stone pier. After this pier had been badly damaged by floods in 1795, the bridge was rebuilt with three single-span cast iron arch ribs supporting a timber superstructure. The centre rib then fractured in 1817 and, within a year, the bridge had been rebuilt with five ribs, some parts of the original ribs being reused. The Severn Way and the Silkin Way pass the ends of the bridge. BA, BE, BEVA, BoB, CEHWW, CoB, DoD, HBS, IB
This semi-elliptical stone arch was built in 1844 to carry the Leamington branch of the London & Birmingham Railway over a local road, and widened in 1916. It incorporates on its parapet a large panel showing the coat of arms of the local Gregory family of Stivichall. BHRB, RHB
Cobden Bridge, located about one mile upstream of the main crossing at Northam Bridge (qv), was for many years the secondary bridge crossing over the River Itchen to the east of Southampton until Itchen Bridge (qv) was opened in 1977. An earlier bridge here had been a wrought iron lattice girder structure, but in 1928 this was replaced by the present reinforced concrete bridge with its five 70ft-long segmental arch spans. BB, BHHI
In about 1100 Queen Matilda, wife of King Henry I, built an early bridge over the River Mole on this site at the north end of Cobham ‘as an act of charity in consequence of the drowning of one of her maidens at the ford’. A later structure was itself replaced in 1782 by the present brick bridge with nine segmental arch spans, the largest of which is about 16ft long. The two semicircular pedestrian refuges on each side are supported on unusual trumpet-shaped stone corbelling, a feature also of two other bridges designed by George Gwilt, the county surveyor (Godalming [qv] and Leatherhead [qv]). The bridge, which was originally 25ft wide, was widened on its north face to 40ft in 1915 and by a further 10ft in 1951. ABSE, BME, CEHS
Cobham Bridge
This unusual stone building forms a link between an earlier Tudor wing, built as an extension to the original Norman manor house, and a porter’s lodge dated 1587. Completed in 1801 to a design by James Wyatt, the structure is partly a ribbed and vaulted porte-cochère outside the north entrance hall of the house’s ground floor, but also acts as a bridge to carry a 16ft-wide footway from the building’s first floor to the main terrace garden. In elevation it has a Tudor-style arch spanning 15ft and is decorated with carvings in the spandrels and on the central upstand sections of the footway’s parapet walls. Cobham Hall is now a girls’ school and it and its bridge are listed Grade I.
This S-shaped footbridge, designed by Sheffield City Council, was built in 2003 and refurbished, following vandalism, in 2012. It goes through one of the Wicker Arches (qv) where that bridge carries railway lines over the River Don and is suspended on steel wires from the underside of the arch. The bridge forms part of the city’s Five Weirs Walk.
The 38ft-wide Coe Fen Bridge was built in 1926 as part of a scheme to bypass the centre of Cambridge and Silver St Bridge (qv). Located about quarter of a mile upstream from the latter, it consists of a 45ft-span single flat segmental arch in reinforced concrete with balustraded parapets. CB
Coe Fen Bridge
There have probably been bridges over the River Colne on this site since Roman times. At the beginning of the nineteenth century a three-span brick arch bridge was built to replace a timber bridge and this in turn was rebuilt in 1843. The present structure has three cast iron arches with a centre span of 30ft and flanking spans of 17ft. In 1903 the eastern face was moved out to widen the bridge from 31ft to 48ft. ABMEE, CEHE
On the central of the three main routes between England and Scotland east of the Pennines, this fine stone bridge across the Tweed was opened in 1767. Designed by John Smeaton, it has five segmental river arches, spanning between 58ft and 69ft, and two smaller semicircular flood arches. In the spandrels immediately above each of the river piers is a largediameter ornamental oculus filled with a random pattern of stones and surrounded by voussoirs with larger projecting stones at the quarter points. A protective weir was built downstream in 1784. Repairs were made in 1922, and in 1960 the bridge was strengthened and reinforced concrete cantilever footways were added to widen the deck to 32ft. When Robert Burns crossed the bridge to enter England for the first time on 7 May 1787, he dropped to his knees and prayed for his country to be blessed, starting with the words, ‘O Scotia! My dear, my native soil!’ Until 1856 runaway couples from England could marry as soon as they had entered Scotland at the Marriage House immediately at the end of the bridge. It is listed Grade A. ABNE, ABTB, BA, BB, BND, BoB, BPJ, B’sB, CBTT, CEHN, CEHSL, HBB, MBVA, TBT
Coldstream Bridge
The curved viaduct, which opened in 1863, was built by Robert P. Brereton to bring the Truro to Falmouth section of the West Cornwall Railway into Falmouth. It consisted of a classic timber fan-strutted structure standing on masonry piers and carrying a single track only. The fifteen spans, each 66ft from centre to centre of the piers, were supported by four raking struts radiating outward from the tops of the piers. In each span a cat’s cradle of tie bracings connected the top of each pier to the top of the nearest radiating strut from the adjacent pier as well as to the top of the adjacent pier, with an additional midspan hanger to prevent undue sagging of this horizontal tie. In 1934 a new masonry viaduct of eleven 68ft-span arches was constructed alongside the earlier timber structure, the last surviving of the forty-two timber railway viaducts built in Cornwall, which was then demolished. BCV, BHRB, BRBV, BTBV, CEHS, CVBH, RHB
The ‘gardens of the world’ created at Compton Acres by T. W. Simpson include a Japanese garden and teahouse built by Japanese workmen in 1920 with all the materials specially imported from Japan. This garden has a zigzag bridge, a type of structure originally built in Japan to protect people using them from evil spirits, who, it was believed, could travel only in straight lines. There are only two spans, each consisting of a stone slab about 6ft long, these being offset in line from each other to avoid the crossing being straight.
Compton Acres Zigzag Bridge
Built in 1772 as part of landscaping works by ‘Capability’ Brown, the classical Upper Bridge carries a re-aligned approach to the house across the end of a newly enlarged lake. Designed by Brown (or possibly Robert Adam), its three 30ft-span segmental arches with archivolt rings support a gently arched 16ft-wide roadway with grass verges. The panelled balustrades are supported on dentilled string courses. Lead sphinxes stand on the abutments, which are decorated with empty niches, and the wing walls curve out to end in drums with ball and finial caps. A second bridge of about the same date, which carries the B4086 above a dam between two lakes, has five low semielliptical arches and solid stone parapet walls.
This aqueduct, a copy of a design by Telford, carries the Macclesfield Canal over the River Dane in a cast iron trough supported by cast iron arch ribs. The parapet railing is particularly attractive. CEHWW, IB
The Conisbrough Viaduct, now disused, was designed by Stanley Kay to take the Dearne Valley mineral railway line over the River Don, and opened in 1907. It has twenty-one bluebrick arches of 60ft span and a 150ft-span lattice steel girder that carried the tracks 110ft above the river. The railway closed in 1965, becoming an unofficial footpath, and since 2010 has been the Dearne Way. BHRB, DoB, RHB
The dramatic but little-known steel cantilever bridge is the second largest bridge of its type in Britain after the Forth Bridge (qv). It was built in 1903 for the Callander & Oban Railway to carry the branch line between Connel Ferry, just north of Oban, and Ballachulish over the 350ft-wide entrance to the sea loch Loch Etive. Designed by Sir John Wolfe Barry, who was assisted by Brunel’s younger son Henry Marc, the bridge spans 524ft between the supports for the two triangular cantilever frames on either bank, which are linked together by a 232ft-long suspended span of deep girders. The bridge originally had a single rail track and single roadway, although the latter did not become fully operational until 1913. This roadway was closed when rail traffic was crossing, but in 1966 the rail track was lifted and the bridge converted for A828 road use only. BHRB, BoB, BPJ, BRB, BRBV, CEHSH, DB, DoB, HB, RHB
Connel Ferry Bridge
Engineer Joseph Mitchell built the Conon Viaduct for the Inverness & Ross-shire Railway in 1862. The five-span stone bridge crosses the river on a heavy skew with four segmental arch ribs each spanning 73ft between intermediate piers. Although the piers are aligned with the river, the pier faces are stepped in plan so that the ribs on the line of the bridge bear square on to the side of the pier, each rib therefore being staggered forward from the previous rib in order to achieve the required 45° skew. BHRB, BRBV, CEHSH, HB, RHB, SG
Conon Railway Viaduct
Telford’s Conwy Suspension Bridge (qv) was bypassed in 1958 by this 310ft-span segmental steel arch bridge. The abutments on the downstream face are given a mock medieval appearance by the large half-round stone towers, and both approach viaducts to the bridge are concealed behind long wing walls of stone. BBPS, CEHW, CEHWW, DB
Conwy Arch Bridge
This suspension bridge by Telford, with its main span of 327ft between tower centres, was opened in 1826 just five months after Telford’s much larger Menai Bridge (qv). Designed to complement the nearby Conwy Castle, the bridge’s main 40ft-high towers appear like medieval castellated gateways. These support two groups of four vertical tiers of wrought iron eyebar chains, which were assembled link by link on a suspended platform. The bridge was strengthened in 1912 and again in 1969, when a modern wire cable was installed above each group of chains. The bridge is owned by the National Trust and is listed Grade I. The Wales Coast Path crosses the River Conwy by this bridge. ABWWE, BB, BBPS, BE, BEVA, BiB, BoB, BW, CEHW, CEHWW, DB, FFB, ICE, TT, Hague
Conwy Suspension Bridge
Robert Stephenson’s railway bridge at Conwy, with its 400ft-long single span of twin rectangular box girders, acted as a useful pilot for his larger Britannia Bridge (qv). The girders were prefabricated on shore from riveted wrought iron plates, floated out and jacked up vertically into their final positions by the end of 1848. The bridge was strengthened in 1899 by the construction of two additional river piers, which reduced the main span to 310ft. The bridge is listed Grade I. BA, BE, BEVA, BHRB, BoB, BOTB, BRBV, BW, CEHW, CEHWW, DB, DoD, IB,RHB, Dempsey, Hague
Conwy Tubular Bridge
In 1840 a timber bridge was opened to replace the ancient ferry that crossed the Thames at Cookham. It had nine 24ft and four 18ft spans but was relatively short-lived, being replaced by a new bridge in 1870. Each side of this bridge has a 3½ft-deep wrought iron plate girder that runs continuously over its eight spans, which are mostly 40ft long, and is topped by an ornate metal parapet railing. The bridge was greatly strengthened in 2001, but with the original character retained. BG, BoT, DoB, TB, TBDS, TC
The moated Cistercian Abbey at Coombe was founded in 1150, closed and sold at the Dissolution in 1539, and in 1622 was taken over and greatly rebuilt by the Craven family. The Abbey is now a hotel. The stone access bridge over the moat was built by the monks and is listed Grade I. It is 14ft wide and has two flat pointed arches separated by a pier with pointed cutwaters, the larger arch having a span of 25ft. In the 1860s family descendants commissioned the architect W. E. Nesfield to build a bridge over the southern part of the moat to link to a new wing. This bridge has a main segmental arch.
Coombe Abbey Bridge
Thomas Gooch designed this two-span segmental stone arch skew bridge over the River Calder for the Manchester & Leeds Railway. It was completed in 1840 but is no longer in use. BHRB, RHB
This bridge was originally one of the Chateau Impney park bridges (qv) built for local salt manufacturer John Corbett, but was bought by the Droitwich Town Council for £2000 in 1971 and re-erected to stand at ground level along a pathway in the gardens of the town’s lido. It consists of two simple twelve-panelled girders 70ft long and 10ft apart, but is decorated with forty-eight of Corbett’s trademark elephant-and-castle plaques.
Since the Roman occupation of Britain there have been three bridge crossings at Corbridge. The Roman Dere Street crossed the Tyne here (the Roman Corstopitum). An earlier all-timber structure was replaced in about 160AD and masonry from part of the south abutment and four piers of the bridge that carried it over the river has been discovered. It appears that the spans between piers were about 24ft long and there are claims that it was the largest Roman bridge in Britain. However, there is no certainty as to whether the structure supported by the piers consisted of semicircular stone arches or was of timber.
The medieval bridge at Corbridge, about half a mile downstream from the site of the Roman crossing, was built in 1235 to replace an existing ford and ferry and was partially destroyed by William Wallace in 1296. It suffered damage regularly from frequent floods in the seventeenth century.
The present bridge was built in 1674 and was the only structure over the Tyne that survived the devastating flood of 1771. It has seven segmental arches, the largest with a span of 64ft, five of 52ft and one of 45ft. The southernmost arch was rebuilt in 1829, and the roadway across the bridge was widened from about 11ft to 15ft in 1880 by rebuilding the parapets on corbels. The bridge has distinctive, stepped, semi-hexagonal cutwaters. ABNE, BB, BBPS, BEVA, BiB, BME, BoB, BND, B’sB, CBTT, CEHN, DB, HWB
Corbridge Bridge
Corby Viaduct was built in 1838 to carry the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway 70ft over the River Eden. It has seven 40ft-long arch spans. BHRB, BRBV, RHB
The ravine that the Outer Bridge spans was cut by miners in 1207 to provide an additional defence for the castle and would originally have been spanned by a timber structure with a drawbridge section. Although the north abutment probably dates back a further 300 years, the current bridge was built in the late seventeenth century. It consists of four unequal semicircular double ring stone arches standing on tall, buttressed, rectangular piers. The castle and bridge are owned by the National Trust. BiB, DDB
Corfe Castle Outer Bridge
This bridge was built by the Swanage Railway in 1885 to take the single-track branch line from Wareham to Swanage, becoming part of the London & South Western Railway the following year. The bridge carries the line over the River Corfe just to the east of the great castle and acts as a Victorian foil to the romantic grandeur of the medieval ruins. It has four 28ft-span semicircular arches supported by square piers with shallow buttresses. The line closed in 1972 and since 1995 the re-founded Swanage Railway has run its heritage trains over the bridge. BHRB, DDB
This bridge in Cornbury Park (where the country’s first ha-ha was built in around 1666) is near the outer end of a long private driveway centred on the axis of the house, but also now carries a public footpath (the Forest of Wychwood Walk). Built by the architect William Talman in 1689 for his patron the 2nd Earl of Clarendon, the stone structure carries a 28ft-wide deck and has a main semicircular arch spanning about 20ft over the River Evenlode. This arch has a projecting keystone and is flanked by decorative pilasters. Two subsidiary 12ft-span semicircular arches on each side of the river originally provided direct access between the fields separated by the structure but these have more recently been partly filled in with unsightly concrete blockwork.
Cornbury Park Driveway Bridge
Although first built around 1480, this bridge was extensively reconstructed in the eighteenth century. It has three pointed stone arches spanning about 11ft each. On the upstream face of the two river piers the pointed cutwaters continue up to parapet level, but have been partly capped off to leave very small refuges. The downstream face of the north pier beneath its larger refuge ends with an ecclesiastical style buttress instead of a cutwater. ABSE, BB, DBHG, DDB
Cornford Bridge
This unusual glazed tubular truss structure replaces an earlier footbridge destroyed by a terrorist bomb in June 1996. Similar in profile to a power station cooling tower on its side, it has a three-dimensional shape known as a hyperbolic paraboloid. It is formed by straight alternating longitudinal steel tubes and bars enveloping a series of circular hoops that diminish in size towards the centre of the span. The tube, which tapers from 3.2m diameter at the ends to 2m at the centre, encloses a 1.5m-wide footway spanning 10m that connects a large store and a separate shopping centre. Built in 1999, the footbridge was designed by engineers Arup with architects Hodder Associates.
Built in 1874 by Benjamin Baker, who was later to build the Forth Bridge (qv), this 83ft-span cable suspension footbridge carries a narrow timber plank deck 200ft above the bottom of the gorge. The bridge is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. BPJ, CEHSH, HB
This aqueduct was completed in 1834 to carry a newly realigned section of the Oxford Canal over the road from Rugby to Lutterworth. Four cast iron segmental arch ribs spanning 24ft between brick abutments originally supported the 15ft-wide cast iron trough, but steel beams now replace three of these ribs. Two further cast iron ribs support the outside of walkways, which also rest on the tops of the trough sides. CEHE, CEHWM
When built in 1805 by William Jessop to carry the Grand Junction Canal over the Great Ouse, this aqueduct originally had three semicircular stone arches. Following its collapse in 1808, the aqueduct was rebuilt in 1811 by Benjamin Bevan with a 101ft-long cast iron trough 15ft wide supported at its centre by a masonry pier. The towpath is supported on struts raking outwards from the bottom flange of the structure. CEHE, SBIW
Cosgrove Aqueduct
The highly decorative bridge over the Grand Junction Canal in the village of Cosgrove was built about 1805. Also known as Solomon’s Bridge, it is a 40ft-span Tudor-style four-centred arch with the full panoply of Gothic adornment. This includes half-octagonal attached piers crowned with ogee-shaped domes on the abutment faces, elaborate niches on the abutment wing walls and panelled parapet walls. Unusually, there is a towpath on each side of the canal under the bridge. BEVA, BG, SBIW, SC
Cosgrove Canal Bridge