Here's something of a classic to kick off the thread. This is the Royal Albert Bridge, which has linked Plymouth in Devon, and Saltash in Cornwall, since 1859. This magnificent structure was the design of the Great Western Railway's engineer, I.K.Brunel. It is something of a testimony to a great design that this bridge still carries all trains into and out of Cornwall to this day, 144 years later! The bridge mechanically is something of a cross between a suspension bridge and an arch, with the arch preventing the suspension bridges forces from overcoming the outer piers. To the best of my knowledge it's a unique design. Both these pics were taken on the 11th March this year, from the Saltash side, the first from the adjacent road bridge, and the second from the platform end at Saltash station. At this location the River Tamar is 1100 feet wide and up to 80 feet deep at high tide. To further complicate matters, the Admiralty (Royal Navy) insisted on clearance of at least 100 feet at the highest tide to allow tall ships underneath, as the river here was used as an anchorage, (and indeed there are Navy locations upriver from here to this day.) They also insisted that the river should not be blocked during the construction, or the channels be obstructed by piers, ruling out a traditional viaduct or trestle. The land either side, whilst high ground, was not high enough to support cables for a suspension bridge, as Brunel had already built on the Clifton (road) suspension bridge in Bristol, or at least not without massive towers, as demonstrated by the 1960's road bridge adjacent to it. It seems amazing that these problems were all overcome, and in an age before massive cranes, or CAD, or any of the tools a modern engineer may take for granted. Construction of the approaches was started in 1853, with the creation of a yard on the Devon shore, and the foundations for the first pier on the Saltash side being laid. Ten piers were needed on the Saltash side and Seven on the Plymouth side. In June 1854 a massive cylinder was towed out into the centre of the river and sunk, designed to be used as a cofferdam to create the foundations for the central pier, or if neccesary as a massive diving bell, should that method not work. It was designed to split in two after use so it could be easily removed from around the pier, this structure weighed upwards of 300 tons. The foundations of the central pier were finally completed in the Autumn of 1856, after being temporarily halted after the bridge's contractor went bust. The two main spans, each 455 feet long, were constructed in the yard on the Plymouth side, and on the 1st September 1857 the first one (the Saltash side) was floated out into position. From the top of the arch to the bottom of the roadbeds, these spans are about 75' deep. The spans were floated into the river on pontoons, and the tide was used to lift the spans the 100' to their final positions. The span was floated into the river on high tide, and as the tide dropped, it rested on the piers. Falsework is then added to the pontoons and when the tide rises again it lifts the bridge, whilst the tide is high the piers are built up to support the span as the tide drops again. In this way, in small increments, the spans were inched up the piers to the neccesary height. Notice the notches on the cast iron columns that support the centre. Once the first span was in place and clear for river traffic, the second span was floated into the river on the 10th July 1958. Brunel was unable to supervise by this time as he had fallen ill. The first train crossed the bridge on the 11th April 1859, and HRH Prince Albert opened the bridge officially on the 2nd May 1859. Brunel did make a final inspection of what was a great acheivement, he travelled across it on a couch fitted to an open wagon, as he was too weak to walk across by this time. Brunel died shortly afterwards, on the 5th September 1859, leaving an amazing legacy in a variety of fields, much of which still serves it's users well even now. Credit section: All dates/details taken from "The Great Western railway in East Cornwall", by Alan Bennett. Runpast Publishing. Right, anyone else got any bridge pics? Doesn't have to be in that much detail! [ 01. April 2003, 22:57: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Martyn, what a very unique bridge, indeed. I am amazed that it was built in the 1800's. It looks so modern!
This isn't the greatest photo but I found it with some of my wifes photos. It is a covered railroad bridge in Vermont and could be on the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain RR. There were several railroads in VT that had covered bridges. Notice on the roof there is a raised section to allow the smoke to escape. [ 24. December 2003, 21:02: Message edited by: signalguy ]
Gil, those covered bridges are great, it's cool that it's survived that long in railroad service though. Here's a bit of a contrast with both of those: A Docklands Light Railway train crossing Heron Quay on a steel bridge which owes more to highway design than railway! Heron Quay station is on the viaduct (and under the office block!) at left, and out of shot to the right is Canary Wharf station. This is the heart of London's Docklands. The DLR is a fully automatic (driverless) light rail system that has grown from a simple three legged route with single (articulated) car trains to covering a large area of East London, with twin car trains as shown, running on three minute frequencies. It now has a tunnel under the Thames to Lewisham, and a further one into the heart of the City of London, and further extensions are planned to London City airport. The DLR is one of the UK's biggest transport success story's, and well worth a visit if you're in London (not least because you can sit up front! )
In Redding, CA the former SP, now UP, has a long trestle crossing the Sacramento River. It is about a mile long and on a big curve. I took two photos of it from the east side and one from the west side plus one with a Hi-Rail going north to give you an idea of the size. I could not find any location that would get the entire trestle in one photo. In the first photo the truss section is the portion actually over the Sacramento River. The first photo is the south end, the second looking north. the third from the west side looking north and the fourth of the Hi-Rail. [ 23. December 2003, 14:57: Message edited by: signalguy ]
Gil, that bridge is massive! Love the way it dwarfs the hi-rail truck. Ok, here's a further one. This is the bridge over the Thames on the Windsor branch of the former Great Western railway. About half the branch (including the terminus) is built on brick arches across the floodplain, but they needed something a little bigger to span the river. A Slough to Windsor DMU is just crossing the river. The river life doesn't seem particularly bothered!
I forgot to mention that this is a single track trestle and the north end crosses part of a golf course.
Here's the railroad bridge over the Mystic River on Connecticut. It is a through-truss swing bridge. When I shot the picture, I was going for the Acela crossing the bridge, so I didn't get the whole span. This was taken from a boat on the river one day last summer.
Johnny Trains sent this Amtrak bridge. He will add the details. All I know is that it is in New York.
My shot is of the former New York Central bridge, now Amtrak's Empire Corridor line bridge over the Harlem River. The bridge is open to let our Circle Line boat pass through!
Signalguy has been able to repair all the links to his pix, except for one. He is looking for that one as well. OK, Martyn, Are yours repairable?
Simply beautiful. It would be interesting to see if any of our model experts can reproduce that scene in three dimensons.
Paul: Really beautiful picture of the Harbour Bridge. I would add that this bridge was built in cantilever style from opposite shores. There were large steel cables anchored in the ground behind the stone abutments. These kept the structure under construction from collasping into the harbor until the two parts from opposite shores could be connected. Strangely, this information, or the exact location of the cables, was lost for some time. They were relocated in the last 10 years or so during some renovation or construction at the south (left hand) end of the bridge. There is a little museum there with the story. Paul, I may be a little off on this. Please do correct my memory. I think the bridge may have been constructed before 1900. Maybe some more info on that? It is a beautiful bridge and, to me, makes Sydney instantly recognizable. Maybe even more than the opera house.
flash, You are correct i think the bridge opened in either 1913 or 1917. I have replaced gantry signals on the actual structure. You can also do a tour and walk over the arch of the bridge, it costs approx $100US but is well worth paying. Here are a few photos of the bridge and its views these were taken one morning after installing LED signals. The photos were taken from the top of the southern pylon. Yes thats me with the black beanie on . The last picture with the Opera house in the forefront was taken when i was sailing out of Sydney on a 10 day South Pacific cruise.
Here is a photo of a southbound UP on the trestle at Redding. The second photo is of the SP/UP bridge between Martinez and Benicia, CA. The lift section is at the left side of the photo. In the background is the north end of San Francisco bay. This is the Carquinez Strait and is the shipping channel to the ports of Sacramento and Stockton.
