How are we going to keep the Picts out now?The complex project saw most of the 200-year-old Union Chain Bridge removed and restored, then put back in place.
NewcastleFalcon wrote: 28 Oct 2022, 22:22 Another classic bridge under renovation The Union Chain Bridge over the Tweed at Horncliffe which is the border between England and Scotland at this point. I reckon in its previous state it could quite easily have coped with walkers and cyclists and maybe the odd horse rider for the next century or two but absolutely no need for it to carry motor traffic at all.
Before the renovation, more than adequate to support one man and his dog!
NewcastleFalcon wrote: 01 Jun 2022, 20:29 Checked out what was happening at the Union Chain Bridge, the world's oldest vehicle carrying suspension bridge.
It really is a colossal waste of money from a modern transport infrastructure point of view and that's from someone who regards the bridge as an iconic crossing of the Tweed, and ranks second only to Carter Bar as the best border crossing. Alternative crossings are available and no-one but odd tourist, and cyclists and walkers use it. It connects sparsely populated farmland and country estates on one side with the same on the other.
Its a nice artistic and engineering installation but if such bridges had to to break even with revenues generated by users of the bridge, it would never be renovated and maintained.
Regards Neil
Just realised Monmouths other bridge doesn't go over the Wye!Gibbo2286 wrote: 22 Apr 2023, 08:46 This one is going to cause a lot of grief in the summer, closing for resurfacing with a very long, 14 miles, detour.
Monnow Bridge, MonmouthThe Monnow Bridge is the only surviving medieval fortified or gate-towered river bridge in Great Britain with its gate tower still standing in place. It is a scheduled ancient monument and a Grade I listed building.
The gate tower was added to the earlier stone bridge in the late 13th or early 14th century. It controlled access to the town, took tolls and was defensible.
In my youth road traffic passed over it every day, with, if I recall correctly, a red double decker bus getting stuck in 1982. It was pedestrianised only in 2004.
© Copyright Jeremy Bolwell and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
I've driven through that arch back in the distant past Neil, 1955 when our army workshop returned from Egypt we picked our trucks up at Barry Docks and drove from there to South Benfleet in Essex.NewcastleFalcon wrote: 22 Apr 2023, 17:38Just realised Monmouths other bridge doesn't go over the Wye!Gibbo2286 wrote: 22 Apr 2023, 08:46 This one is going to cause a lot of grief in the summer, closing for resurfacing with a very long, 14 miles, detour.
Monnow Bridge, MonmouthMonnow Bridge, MonmouthThe Monnow Bridge is the only surviving medieval fortified or gate-towered river bridge in Great Britain with its gate tower still standing in place. It is a scheduled ancient monument and a Grade I listed building.
The gate tower was added to the earlier stone bridge in the late 13th or early 14th century. It controlled access to the town, took tolls and was defensible.
In my youth road traffic passed over it every day, with, if I recall correctly, a red double decker bus getting stuck in 1982. It was pedestrianised only in 2004.
© Copyright Jeremy Bolwell and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
In spite of exploring many of the nooks and crannies of Northumberland and Durham, today was the first time I took the trouble to go and see Twizell Viaduct for myself.https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/twizel-viaduct/
Twizel Viaduct was built between 1846 and 1849 by the Newcastle & Berwick Railway, to carry the Tweedmouth to Kelso railway branch line over the River Till at Twizell in Northumberland. The bridge, also known as St Cuthbert's Viaduct, has six arches, and measures 136 yards between its abutments. The first train crossed the viaduct on the 27th July, 1849. The last passenger service on the line ran in June 1964 and the last goods train in March 1965.[1] After the railway closed the track was removed and some of the line now forms a footpath. In 2005 the County Council re-opened the viaduct as a cross-river footpath.[2] The viaduct is Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England.
The photograph was taken in Haddington, East Lothian. 
