BRIDGES OVER RIVERS & CENTURIES

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph shows the  bridges over the River Tyne in Newcastle in north east England. Cue for me to feature another river with multi crossings - the River Tweed - 3 miles from my home in the Scottish Borders, with its three bridges, spanning two hundred years of history. 

 

The middle bridge here was built 1776-80. It replaced a ferry crossing over the River Tweed, on the route that is now the main A68 north to Edinburgh. Its narrow structure, more used to horses and carts, but remained in use for 200 years controlled by traffic lights, until a new road bridge (in the foreground) was errected,

 

Photographs courtesy of the Auld Earlston Heritage Group

 
In the background is the famous Leaderfoot Viaduct built in 1865 and the major engineering feat of the Berwickshire Railway Line from the east. The statistics are impressive - the viaduct stands 126 feet (38 m) from the floor of the river valley, and its 19 arches, each has a 43 feet span. It was named after the meeting of the Leader Water with the River Tweed. 

A local paper of 3rd September 1863 gives a graphic account of an accident to a work on the viaduct.

                         

                     

 

The Berwickshire Railway was badly affected by severe flooding in 1948 and services to the east of the county were particularly affected. The last train ran over the viaduct in 1965. It is now under the care of Historic Environment Scotland.

The Viaduct remains a popular spot for photographers today - here a view taken from the old road bridge which is now only open to walkers and cyclists.

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My brother standing in front of the cast iron arched Ironbridge over the River Severn in Shropshire, where our father spent his childhood. It was the first ironbridge built In 1781 and often described as "the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution". It is now a World Heritage Site.

Although Dad was born in Bilston, Wolverhampton, he moved to Broseley, across the river from Ironbridge, when he was five years old and he regarded it as his happy childhood home. He went to school there, sang in the choir from the age of seven and began his working life at a grocer's shop, delivering goods by pony and cart. Dad's father had a 35 minutes walk across this bridge each way every day to get to his work at the Coalbrookdale Power House in the Severn valley. The local historical society has been particularly helpful in my family history.

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On some decades ,   and here are my parents on the walkway of the newly opened Forth Road Bridge, spanning the Firth of Forth, near Ediinburgh with the historic Rail Bridge to the right, We lived then about 6 miles away and it was my father's favourite Sunday outing to drive to South Queensferry to see how the bridge was progressing. 

 

I am struck in this photograph  by the formal wear of my 56 year old mother - but oh so typical of the time - court shoes, handbag,  hat and gloves for what could have been a blustery walk.   

 

The bridge  was opened by Queen Elizabeth in September 1964 and replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians across the River Forth   at Queensferry  - a real bottleneck for everyone. When the  new road  bridge opened, it was the fourth biggest suspension bridge in the world and the longest outside the United States.

The Forth Rail Bridge, crossing the Forth estuary   is a celebrated Scottish landmark, and a milestone in the development of railway civil engineering,  Built in the aftermath of one of the most infamous railway engineering failures  -the Tay Rail Bridge disaster in 1879, it was the first major structure in Britain to be made of steel and its construction resulted in a continuous East Coast railway route from London to Aberdeen.  The railway bridge, had the world's longest spans (541 m) when it opened in 1890.  At the height of constructive, it employed a workforce of 4600 with the loss of  57 lives.  It remains one of the greatest cantilever trussed bridges and continues to carry passengers and freight today. It now has been given   a World Heritage status.

 

Photograph courtesy of Pixabay 

 

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I now live in the Scottish Borders - a region noted for its rolling hills and flowing rivers - so naturally there are many bridges. Here is just one.

Chain Bridge at Melrose

The Chain Bridge at Melrose beneath the Eildon Hills crosses the famous salmon river of the Tweed. It was opened in 1826 and conditions were imposed on its use including the restraint that no more than eight people should be on it at any one time.  Also "No  loitering, climbing or intentional swinging" permitted, Contravention of the rules was  punishable by a £2 fine (£135 in today's money) -  or imprisonment.  (Currency Converter).

 

 

Since payment had to be made to cross the bridge, a ford downstream for horse drawn vehicles continued to be used by pedestrians for some time, with a box of stilts at each end of the ford for people to use for a safer journey.

The bridge is still in use today - at no charge!
 

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And finally  back ro rhe 18th century -  I could not resist  showing this  wooden bridge  - a reconstruction of the Old North Bridge, Concord, Massachusetts, where in 1775 local Minutemen fired the first shot in the American War of Independence and forced the British to retreat back to Boston. 

 

Taken in 1965 when I spent a wonderful year working in Cambridge, Mass.

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