Bridges in Cornwall: Royal Albert Bridge

by Books LLC (Creator)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Royal Albert Bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Two rival schemes for a railway to Falmouth, Cornwall were proposed in the 1830s. The 'central' scheme was a route from Exeter around the north of Dartmoor, an easy route to construct but with little intermediate traffic. The other, the 'coastal' scheme, was a line with many engineering difficulties but which could serve the important naval town of Plymouth and the industrial area around St Austell. The central scheme was backed by the London and South Western Railway while the coastal scheme was supported by the Cornwall Railway and backed by the Great Western Railway which wanted it to join up with the South Devon Railway at Devonport. The Cornwall Railway applied for an Act of Parliament in 1845 but it was rejected, in part because of William Moorsom's plan to carry trains across the water of the Hamoaze on the Torpoint Ferry. Following this Isambard Kingdom Brunel took over as engineer and proposed to cross the water higher upsteam at Saltash. The Act enabling this scheme was passed on 3 August 1846. A drawing of one span and its piersThe structure was the third in a series of three large wrought iron bridges built in the middle of the nineteenth century and was influenced by the preceding two, both of which had been designed by Robert Stephenson. The two central sections of Brunel's bridge are novel adaptations of the design Stephenson employed for the High Level Bridge across the River Tyne in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1849. Brunel was present when Stephenson raised the girders of his Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait in the same year. From 1849 to 1853 was Brunel erecting an iron bridge of his own. The Chepstow Bridge carried the South Wales Railway across the River Wye and fea... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=333932

Paperback

Published May 31, 2010