When was wearmouth bridge built

The centring required for an iron rather than stone arch was more like scaffolding than massive supporting piers. The timber framework for this was constructed on land, floated into the water and raised on two caissons sunk in the river bed.

The tonne iron arch was completed in 10 working days, while shipping passed unimpeded beneath the scaffold.

The temporary supports were about to be removed in autumn when a storm displaced the staging and moved the arch mm. Workmen hastily removed the connecting wedges and the arch of comparatively elastic metal apparently sprang partly back into position.

No further work was deemed necessary on the alignment. As was usual at the time, tolls were levied to recoup the cost of construction. Its commissioners were also responsible for running the ferries, which continued to operate. The bridge became free to pedestrians in and was completely toll free by November In , a bulge was visible on the east side of the arch, probably a legacy of the storm during construction.

John Grimshaw was called in to advise and he concluded that the arch was now some mm out of line. Most of the spacing tubes were gone and the ribs were only held together by the timber framework on top. His remedial work inserted diagonal bracing between the ribs and wedged the arch back into line. The concrete abutments are faced with masonry, the arch of the bridge does not rise to any great hight but is rather flattened compared to other single arch bridges of this type. It is, nevertheless, quite high above the river and is wide enough for four lanes of traffic.

Trams formerly used the bridge until theirwithdrawal in It is Grade 2 listed. The Wearmouth bridge repaced an earlier arch bridge of at the instigation of local MP Roland Burdon. Built of cast iron and stone it had a pronounced hump. The adjoining railway bridge was built in , and extended the railway south from Monkwearmouth to the centre of Sunderland. Further up the river, another bridge, the Queen Alexandra Bridge, was completed in , linking the areas of Pallion and Southwick.

The bridge carries the A road between Chester-le-Street and South Shields and the A which was the old route of the A19 until the bypass was built leading to the Tyne Tunnel. Related Pages. River Wear. Historic Buildings and Monuments in Sunderland. The current bridge was built to and replaced an earlier cast-iron bridge in the same place which had opened in , and was later reconstructed in In Micheal Smith jumped off the Wearmouth Bridge for a stunt.

Amazingly he survived, but was arrested for begging as the crowds who watched started giving him money! The first bridge, — The first Wearmouth Bridge opened in , with the foundation stone having been laid in September