Gasworks Bridge, Oxford
The lattice girder bridge was built in 1886 to carry six 18-inch gas mains, a road, and a railway track across the River Thames to St. Ebbe's Gasworks.
It is now a pedestrian bridge linking St Ebbes with the Grandpont Nature Reserve.
Geograph entry here.
Another pipe bridge, of light construction, was built in 1927. It was latterly adapted for use as a footbridge. It is currently (2024) undergoing repair.
From Engineering 1896/05/08:-
In 1882 the Oxford Gaslight and Coke Company
obtained an Act authorising the construction of a
bridge across the Thames about half a mile above
Folly Bridge, for the purpose of carrying their
sidings from the Great Western Railway Company’s
lines to the retort-houses, and connect the land
the gas company had acquired on the west side of
the river, for gas storage, with the older part of
their works. The bridge was designed by the
late Mr. Thomas Hawkesley, and was erected in
1886 by Messrs. Vernon and Co., the amount
of the contract for the ironwork being 3944l.
The bridge is in two spans supported by brick
abutments on each side and by two cast-iron
cylinders 5 ft. 6 in. in diameter, sunk in the
middle of the river. The cylinders are 8 ft. 6 in.
in diameter at the lower parts, the smaller size
being connected to the larger by tapering rings
seen in the illustration on page 608. They are
filled with concrete to the top of the tapering portion, and above that level with Staffordshire brickwork set in cement. Cast-iron bedplates are provided on the tops of the columns as bearings for
the girders, which rest on rolling bearings upon
each abutment. The clear spans are 65 ft.
and the length of the girders is 73 ft. 6 in. ;
these girders are 8 ft. in depth, with parallel
top and bottom flanges, and double lattice bars.
The clear width between the main girders is
about 22 fc., and the platform is carried on 22
transverse solid plate girders 22 ft. 8 in. long and
3 ft. deep, with flanges 10£ in. wide ; the flooring
is made with Lindsay’s steel troughs riveted together and to the cross-girders. Along each side of
the bridge cast-iron fender-plates are secured to
retain the ballast of the road. One half of the
platform is used as a cart-road, the other half is
occupied by a single track of rails. Beneath the
cartway there are laid five rows of gas mains 18 in.
in diameter ; a footway with granite kerb is also
provided. We are indebted to the courtesy of
Mr. J. Eldridge, engineer of the Oxford Gaslight
and Coke Company, for the foregoing information.'
Vernon and Co = Vernon and Ewens?