300 



BUILDWAS IRON BRIDGE. 



I'ART VITT. 



iron ; Buildwas bridge containing 173, whereas the other 

 contained 378 tons. The new structure was, besides, 

 extremely elegant in form ; and when the centres were 

 struck, the arch and abutments stood perfectly firm, and 

 have remained so until this day. But the ingenious yet 

 simple design of this bridge will be better explained 

 by the following representation than by any description 

 in words. 1 





BUILDWAS BRIDGE. [By .Peicival .Skelton ] 



This, however, had not been Telford's first employment 

 of iron in bridge-building ; for we found him writing to 

 his friend at Langholm the year before Paine' s arching 

 was erected at Sunderland and his own at Buildwas that 

 he had recommended an iron aqueduct for the Shrews- 

 bury Canal, "on a principle entirely new," and which 

 he was " endeavouring to establish with regard to the 



1 Mr. Telford gives the following 

 further details: "Each of the main 

 ribs of the flat arch consists of three 

 pieces, and at each junction they are 

 secured by a grated plate, which con- 

 nects all the parallel ribs together 

 into one frame. The back of each 

 abutment is in a wedge-shape, so as 

 to throw off laterally much of the 



pressure of the earth. Under the 

 bridge is a towing path on each side 

 of the river. The bridge was cast in 

 an admirable manner by the Coal- 

 brookdale iron-masters in the year 

 1796, under contract with the county 

 magistrates. The total cost wsis 

 6034?. 13s. 3d." ' Life,' p. 30. 



