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Last Bridges

Towards the end of his career, Telford built some remarkable bridges.  Two bridges were built crossing the Severn at Tewkesbury and Gloucester.  The Tewkesbury bridge, known today as Mythe Bridge, was a completely new structure.  It was built of cast iron and spanned the river with a single span of 170 feet.

The single stone arch over the River Severn, at Over near Gloucester in 2004. Telford considered this bridge to be a failure because it sank ten inches when the centering was removed, but it hasn’t moved since. Photograph courtesy of Chris Morris.

The bridge crossing the river at Over near Gloucester was a replacement of a much earlier bridge and was proposed to be built of cast iron, but this was rejected by the city authorities who wanted a stone bridge.  Telford answered this with his most impressive design for a stone arch to date; the arch was built as an ellipse with the external stones cut away to present less obstruction to the river.  The bridge was completed in 1828 and also still stands today as a testament to his skill.Two final bridges were built in Scotland.  Both Dean Bridge in Edinburgh and Jamaica Street Bridge in Glasgow were fine designs in stone. Dean Bridge crossing the Leith was completed in 1831 and Jamaica Street Bridge crossing the Clyde was completed in 1836 a year after Telford’s death.

Dean Bridge crossing the Leith in Edinburgh
in 2004. Photograph courtesy of Chris Morris. 

Jamaica Street Bridge was rebuilt in 1899 to cope with the demands of modern traffic and such was the affection felt in the city for Telford’s Bridge that the stone facings were retained and reused on the new bridge.

Jamaica Street Bridge, Glasgow in 1905 after it was widened to 80 feet in the late 1890s.  The new bridge opened in 1899 retaining Telford’s facings, balustrades and coping stones.  Ref: PHU64/36. Photograph courtesy of Glasgow University Archive Services.