Britannia Bridge

Britannia Bridge crosses the Menai Strait between mainland Wales and Anglesey, carrying the North Wales Coast Line and the A55. Originally opened in 1850 as a tubular railway bridge, it was rebuilt after a fire in 1970 to carry both rail and road traffic.

Robert Stephenson: Robert Stephenson was a British civil and mechanical engineer who designed major railways and bridges during the nineteenth century. He designed Britannia Bridge with William Fairbairn and oversaw its construction.
Wrought iron: Wrought iron is a malleable iron alloy containing very little carbon and fibrous slag inclusions. The original bridge’s enormous tubes were assembled from wrought-iron plates.
Chester and Holyhead Railway: The Chester and Holyhead Railway was a nineteenth-century railway built to connect Chester with the port of Holyhead. Britannia Bridge was a central structure on its route to Holyhead.
North Wales Coast Line: The North Wales Coast Line is a railway route linking Crewe with Holyhead along the North Wales coast. Britannia Bridge carries this railway across the Menai Strait.
William Fairbairn: William Fairbairn was a Scottish engineer whose investigations advanced structural engineering and iron construction. His experiments on iron tubes informed the bridge’s original design.
Box girder bridge: A box girder bridge uses hollow, box-shaped beams to resist bending and twisting. The rebuilt bridge uses concrete box-girder construction for its road deck.
Britannia Bridge fire: The Britannia Bridge fire was a 1970 blaze that severely damaged the original railway bridge’s timber roof and structure. The fire ended the bridge’s original tubular form and prompted its reconstruction.
Anglesey: Anglesey is an island off the northwest coast of Wales, separated from the mainland by the Menai Strait. The bridge provides a fixed rail and road connection between the island and mainland Wales.
Tubular bridge: A tubular bridge carries loads through hollow, enclosed structural members, typically made from iron or steel. Britannia Bridge was an early landmark in this bridge form.
Prestressed concrete: Prestressed concrete is concrete strengthened by tensioned steel tendons that counteract tensile stresses. Prestressed concrete forms the road-carrying structure added during reconstruction.

Linked from 1 page