464 TEWKESBUBY AND GLOUCESTER BRIDGES. PART VIII. 



Amongst the remaining bridges executed by Mr. Tel- 

 ford, towards the close of his professional career, may be 

 mentioned those of Tewkesbury and Gloucester. The 

 former town is situated on the Severn, at its confluence 

 with the river Avon, about eleven miles above Gloucester. 

 The surrounding district was rich and populous ; but 

 being intersected by a large river, without a bridge, 

 the inhabitants applied to Parliament for powers to pro- 

 vide so necessary a convenience. The design first pro- 

 posed by a local architect was a bridge of three arches ; 

 but Mr. Telford, when called upon to advise the trustees, 

 recommended that, in order to interrupt the navigation 

 as little as possible, the river should be spanned by a 

 single arch ; and he submitted a design of such a cha- 

 racter, which was approved and subsequently erected. 

 It was finished and opened in April, 1826. 



This is one of the most extensive as well as graceful 

 of Mr. Telford' s numerous cast iron bridges. It is of a 

 single span of 170 feet, with a rise of only 17 feet. It 

 consists of six ribs of about three feet three inches deep, 

 the spandrels being filled in with light diagonal work. 

 The narrow Gothic arches in the masonry of the abut- 

 ments give the bridge a very light and graceful appear- 

 ance, at the same time that they afford an enlarged 

 passage for the high river floods. 



The bridge at Gloucester consists of one large stone 

 arch of 150 feet span. It replaced a structure of great 

 antiquity, of eight arches, which had stood for about 

 600 years. The roadway over it was very narrow, 

 and the number of piers in the river and the small 

 dimensions of the arches offered considerable obstruc- 

 tion to the navigation. To give the largest amount of 

 waterway, and at the same time reduce the gradient of 

 the road over the bridge to the greatest extent, Mr. 

 Telford adopted the following expedient. He made the 

 general body of the arch an ellipse, 150 feet on the chord- 

 line and 35 feet rise, while the voussoirs, or external 



