Water Street Bridge (Manchester)

Water Street Bridge on the right, Irwell Bridge on left. By Henry Pyall - T.T. Bury (revised edition 1833), Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. London: Ackermann & Co; plate 6. This scan/photograph from the Stapleton Collection, via the Bridgeman Art Library (STC 267571) and Artfinder.com (description page, image), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19417029

This is the 1904 bridge that replaced the historic 1830 cast iron bridge

This bridge crosses Water Street immediately north of the 1904 bridge, serving goods warehouses

The original bridge carried the Liverpool and Manchester Railway over Water Street.

It was the first cast iron bridge constructed to carry a main line railway (as distinct from a tramway). It took the railway into the terminus station, now the home of Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry.

After crossing the River Irwell into Central Manchester, George Stephenson was faced with the problem in getting the railway across Water Street to the terminus. The difficulty arose because the authorities imposed strict requirements on the clearance for traffic and pedestrians using Water Street. The height/width envelope was problematic, especially since the bridge had to be skewed. An arch bridge would be too restrictive, unless the track level was raised appreciably, which would bring its own major problems. Stephenson found the answer in a relatively novel way - using cast iron beams of relatively long span. Five shallow beams supported cross beams, from which were spring brick jack arches. The ends of the main beams were supported on masonry blocks, which were in turn supported by fluted cast iron columns. The beams spanned the road (24 ft 6"), and not the 6 ft wide walkways, which were spanned by brick jack arches. The cast iron parapets did not contribute to the strength of the bridge.

The bridge was designed by George Stephenson, using the principles established by Eaton Hodgkinson following extensive experimentation, latterly under the sponsorship of Fairbairn and Lillie, who also produced the beam castings for the bridge. Hodgkinson made some observations on the Water Street beams in a paper in 1831

1898 photo here.

The bridge was subsequently replaced by a steel girder bridge in 1904 (see photo).

More information and illustrations here.

See Also

Loading...