Northwich Viaduct
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The Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway opened in 1854. Owned by the LNWR and the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire (MS&L, later Great Central) it had a semi-independent existence and in 1928 was electrified on an overhead 1,500 volt dc system.
In 1863 the Cheshire Midland Railway, promoted by the MS&L and the Great Northern, opened an extension from Altrincham to Northwich.
In 1869 the West Cheshire Railway opened a futher extension form Northwich to Helsby at the western end of the Wirral. This became part of the Cheshire Lines Committee in 1866. This was a grouping created in 1865 by the Great Northern and MS&L as part of a strategy to reach Liverpool and Birkenhead. It was also joined in 1866 by the Midland.
The route westward from Northwich had to cross the river Weaver and the Weaver Navigation for which a long viaduct was designed by the West Cheshire. Their engineer proposed to use bricks, but when it became part of the Cheshire Lines Committee, the engineers of the Great Northern and MS&L agreed that local red sandstone should be used. In all it is 676 m (739 yds) long and carries the railway on forty seven arches and a wrought iron bowed plate girder span over each of the two waterways, with a further stone arch between them. It is a massive and impressive structure.
It is a Grade II Listed Building.
By road: On A533 and close to A559.
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