Manchester Victoria and Exchange Station Bridges

1. The western bridges in context

2. The context in context. Looking north, Manchester Cathedral is in the left foreground. The large aluminium-clad building is the M.E.N. Arena, with Victoria Station buildings in front, on the right. The tall black chimney belonged to Boddongton's Strangeways Brewery. Strangeways Prison tower beyond.

3. The northern pair of bridges (disused) over Great Ducie/Victoria Street. 'Bridge A' on the left

1896. Detail of 'Bridge A' (see text)

4. Southern bridge across the River Irwell (Bridge 'B' in photo 1)

5. This is Bridge 'C' in photo 1. Bridge 'B' is on the right

6. Cathedral Approach bridge. Victoria Bridge beyond

7. Cathedral Approach bridge viewed through Victoria Bridge

8. 2024. Bridge over Greengate

9. 2024. Bridge over Greengate

This entry refers to a collection of bridges in close proximity to Manchester Victoria Railway Station and the former contiguous Manchester Exchange Railway Station.

The most interesting group is immediately west of Victoria station, carrying the railway over Victoria Street/Great Ducie Street (see A in photo 1). Immediately west of this group, another group of bridges cross the River Irwell, relatively unobtrusively. North of the road bridges the road is called Great Ducie Street, while south of the bridges the same road is called Victoria Street (previously called Hunts Bank).

The railway crosses the Irwell immediately before it takes a sharp turn southwards, while at the same time it is joined by the River Irk where it emerges from the western portal of Great Ducie Street Bridge. See photo here. The Irk was subsequently culverted upstream of Great Ducie Street Bridge.

Bridge E in photo 1 is Waterloo Bridge (Salford), not connected with the railway system.

The Historic England website refers to part of the group as 'VICTORIA STREET STEPHENSON BRIDGE (Formerly listed as: VICTORIA STREET, STEPHENSON BRIDGE, then listed as STEPHENSON BRIDGE (THAT PART IN MANCHESTER DISTRICT) and STEPHENSON BRIDGE (THAT PART IN SALFORD DISTRICT)).' . This source provides clarity to some aspects of the history of these bridges, particulary the 1844 cast iron arch bridge, which Historic England credits to George Stephenson. Only the north face of the 1844 bridge is visible for scrutiny, displaying cast iron spandrel panels with lozenge-shaped decoration (photo here), while the south face is obscured by a later (1884) bridge. Approaching the 1844 arch from the south gives the immediate impression that it has riveted arch girders, but in fact only the most southerly of the arch girders is riveted, and this is not part of the 1844 bridge, whose arch is assembled from a series of iron castings. Photograph of the underside, showing 12 cast iron arches, here.

It was reported on 30 December 1843 that the wooden staging had been removed from the newly-finished cast iron road bridge, built for the 'Liverpool extension'. The span was given as about 83 ft, and the height of the crown above the road as 23 ft.. The corresponding river crossing had an arch spanning 120 ft, but it was narrower in width.

It was reported in 1843 that the new railway connecting Salford and Victoria stations had, between New Bailey Street and Ducie Street ( a distance of just half a mile) no less than 57 arches (comprising all the viaduct arches and the various railway bridges over streets).

The 1844 bridges over the road and over the River Irwell would have made an attractive sight in their heyday, as shown by a popular contemporary lithograph, here.

The later bridges are of riveted girder construction, but are faced with decorative cast iron parapets. In some cases the cast iron panels have the same 'flower garland' theme as one of the Salford Station Bridges a short distance to the west, but without the attractive paintwork of the Salford bridge. The two most northerly bridges (see photo), and their longer counterparts across the River Irwell, are now disused. The first, nearest to the 1844 bridge, was constructed for the L&YR and L&NWR railway by the Fairbairn Engineering Co in 1863-4..

The Historic England entry states that the northern bridge was constructed in 1893. The shape of its girders is unusual, having 'knees' at the ends (see Photo 3). The depth of the girders at the knees allows for the accommodation of cross-bracing.

Flanking the 1844 road and river bridges on the south side are the last of the group, built in 1884 (Ref. English Heritage). The road bridge is of riveted girder construction with a cast iron parapet featuring large rosettes on the sides and small lion heads on the top. Photograph here. The west abutment was constructed to resemble that of the 1844 bridge. The corresponding span over the River Irwell is of plate girder construction with support from a single cross-braced girder beneath ('B' in Photo 1). Just visible behind the lattice girder is a masonry arch, and immediately upstream of that is a brick arch bridge. Immediately west of Victoria Station was Exchange Station, the two being connected by long platforms which extended over the road and river bridges. For a long time time the parapets of the southern (1884) bridge were augmented by a huge glazed cast iron screen, seen to good effect in the 1903 photograph here.. The screen was still present in 1944, but it had been boarded up, presumably to protect the public from flying glass during air raids. See 1944 photo here.

1864 Bridge

Bridge D in photo 1 is Palatine Bridge, or Salford Bridge, opened in 1864. The original ironwork, produced by W. and J. Galloway and Sons, succumbed to corrosion and was rebuilt in the early 1900s.

'OPENING OF THE SALFORD BRIDGE. On Wednesday the Salford Corporation celebrate the opening to the public of the new Salford Bridge just erected across the Irwell, between the Victoria Bridge and the railway bridge. From Salford the bridge is approached by a short piece of new street, forming a continuation of Chapel-street, opened out at the elbow junction of that street and Greengate ; and on the Manchester side of the river the bridge abuts directly on Victoria-street, opposite the Palatine Buildlngs, between the Palatine Hotel and the Cathedral. .... The new bridge is a cast-iron structure in one span. Its first noticeable peculiarity is its form, as indicated by the roadway. In continuation of the line of the new portion of Chapel-street, the south side of the bridge crosses the river very obliquely ; but the north side is at a right angle to the stream. The bridge, therefore, is in the form of a trapezium. ...'. The ironwork was produced by W. and J. Galloway and Sons. The roadway and masonry contractor was Abraham Pilling.

Cathedral Approach

This was a wide road bridge crossing both the River Irwell and Chapel Street, sloping up from near the Cathedral to the Exchange Station buildings. See photos 6 & 7.

Built in 1884 as part of the Exchange Station construction project. 'The bridge across the Irwell is one of the most important features from an engineering point of view. It is constructed on a "skew" with a span of 160 ft. The flanges, both top and bottom, are of steel, and the ribs of wrought iron. There will be an ornamental parapet on each side consisting of cast-iron. The road will be carried across Chapel-street by a massive bridge with girders of steel and wrought iron. ..... The plans for the station were prepared by Mr. Francis Stevenson, engineer-in-chief of the company, and Mr. J. G. Brickenden, resident engineer, has been in constant attendance of the works. The contractors are Messrs. R. Neill and Sons, to whom the entire work of building the station was entrusted. The Cromwell Bridge is being constructed under a special contract by Messrs. T. Nelson and Co., of York.

The box girders were between 152 ft and 165 ft 8" long, and 10 ft to 12 ft 9" deep at the Salford end, and 6 ft 3 1/4" to 7 ft 2" at the Manchester end.

For some reason the bridge was set too high at the Manchester end, and it was necessary to lower it. This was done by Heenan and Froude, who used sand 'jacks'. These were 18" diameter cast iron cylinders containing dry Southport sand, the sand supporting oak 'pistons' on which the ends of the five girders rested. The jacks were supported on temporary wooden piles driven into the Irwell. By controlled release of the sand, the bridge was lowered by 16". This was done over a period of 5 hours on 10 November 1884.

The bridge has latterly been used for car parking and for access to the car park on the former station forecourt.

Cheetham Hill Road Bridge

Immediately east of Victoria Station, Cheetham Hill Road crosses the numerous rail tracks on a long and wide iron girder bridge. The riveted plate girders are surmounted by tall parapets in the form of cast iron panels, stabilised by diagonal props on the outside (i.e. railway side) of the bridge. The bridge is supported by a combination of masonry abutments and cast iron columns.

The present bridge presumably dates from 1901-2, as the L&YR were advertising for tenders in connection with the extension of Victoria Station, which included removal of the old Cheetham Hill Road bridge.

The 1849 O.S. map shows that the road was then narrower and called Ducie Street, and only had to span two tracks at the eastern portal (expanding by means of points as the tracks passed under the bridges to the station). South of the railway, the road crossed the River Irk on the old Ducie Bridge. Later, the River Irk would be culverted to pass under the station, only to emerge very briefly as it joined the River Irwell adjacent to the Great Ducie Street/Victoria Street bridges described above.

Bridge A

This bridge was built in the 1890s to take the L&YR line over Great Ducie Street. Dimensional constraints in all directions demanded a special design. '.... Mr. Hunt, chief engineer of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, solved the difficulty by fixing the ends of the girders, thus immediately enabling the depth of the girders to be reduced where such a reduction was most urgent, namely, over the carriage-way of the street. .... It will be seen from the figure that the girder differs from a simple girder in having its ends elongated and fixed rigidly down by long bolts built into the abutments. .... These long bolts are set far enough back from the face of the abutment to prevent any excess of pressure towards the front, and to have sufficient deadweight of abutment hung on the bolts to prevent the girder lifting. ..... In an ordinary fixed girder of uniform section we know that the stress is less at the centre than at the ends, and therefore we can have the least depth at the centre. Also, increasing the depth at the ends increases the moment of inertia in that region, throwing the points of inflexion nearer the centre, and enabling a further reduction of depth to be made at the centre. The form of the girder adopted is more pleasing to the eye thanifit hadbeen constructed straight on the underside. The girder distantly resembles an arch, and the baldness of a plain rectangular opening is certainly taken off by curving the ends. ....'. Theoretical analysis followed.

Bridge B

See photo 4. This was probably constructed between 1927 and 1929 as part of the track and platform widening work undertaken when the former LNWR and L&YR stations were united.

Bridge C

See photo 5. A Warren truss girder supports the deck of what is now a car park. This may be part of the 1864 bridge.

Bridge over Greengate

Heading west from Victoria Station, the first bridge after the bridge over the River Irwell was a masonry arch bridge. This was later widened on the north and south sides by the addition of riveted wrought iron or steel structures, with the addition of a single riveted arch immediately south of the masonry arch. See photos 8 & 9.

See also Gravel Lane Railway Bridges (Salford)

See Also

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