Black Bridge, Bridgwater
Region:
Red Wheel Site:
Transport Mode(s):
Address:
Postcode:
Visitor Centre:
Website:
Visit website
The Black Bridge was a telescopic standard gauge railway bridge over the River Parrett, built in 1870 to link the Bridgwater Docks to the main railway line and used originally by horse-drawn wagons.
There were two independent plate girder spans meeting on a pair of cast iron cross-braced columns. The shorter span of some 20 m (66 ft) was fixed but the longer span of 40 m (131 ft) was supported by skids on the columns and rollers on an intermediate pier and on a stone abutment. When it was necessary to retract the span to allow the passage of shipping a section of railway track supported on wheels was moved to one side to make a space for the span. Initially operated manually, steam power was introduced after a year.
The mechanism was removed in 1974 but the skids and rollers can still be seen.
Now used by pedestrians and cyclists, it is a scheduled Ancient Monument and is listed Grade II*.
By road: Off A38 and A39, adjacent to the road bridge joining The Clink to Northgate.
By rail: Bridgwater Station is ten minutes walk away.
Biddle, Gordon, Britain's Historic Railway Buildings, Oxford University Press, ISBN-10: 0198662475 (2003)
Biddle, Gordon & Nock, O.S., The Railway Heritage of Britain : 150 Years of Railway Architecture & Engineering, Studio Editions, ISBN-10: 1851705953 (1990)
Biddle, Gordon and Simmons, J., The Oxford Companion to British Railway History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0 19 211697 5 (1997)
Bonavia, Michael, Historic Railway Sites in Britain, Hale, ISBN 0 7090 3156 4 (1987)
Conolly, W. Philip, British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-0320-3 (1958/97)
Jowett, Alan, Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland, Patrick Stephens, ISBN 1-8526-0086-1 (March 1989)
Morgan, Bryan, Railways: Civil Engineering, Arrow, ISBN 0 09 908180 6 (1973)
Morgan, Bryan, Railway Relics, Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 0092 1 (1969)
Simmons, J., The Railways of Britain, Macmillan, ISBN 0 333 40766 0 (1961-86)
Simmons, J., The Victorian Railway, Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0 500 25110X (1991)
Smith, Martin, British Railway Bridges and Viaducts, Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 2273 9 (1994)
Turnock, David, An Historical Geography of Railways, Ashgate, ISBN 1 85928 450 7 (1998)
British History Online - Bridgwater
Bridgwater - The Blake Museum
Bridgwater - Town Centre Map
Bridgwater & District Civil Society
English Heritage - An Archeological Assessment of Bridgwater