Royal Border Bridge
Twenty eight arch rail bridge that spans the River Tweed between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Tweedmouth.
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Railway Street, Berwick on Tweed TD15 1NF
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The Royal Border Bridge spans the River Tweed between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Tweedmouth in Northumberland.
Built between 1847 and 1850 and opened by Queen Victoria, it was a Robert Stephenson design. Built for the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, the bridge is 659 metres long. It has twenty eight arches, constructed of brick but aesthetically faced with stone. The bridge is 38 metres above the river itself.
It remains in full and regular use today as part of the East Coast Main Line. In the 1990s it underwent significant repair work for the first time, in a Railtrack project with some funding from English Heritage.
It is a Grade I Listed Building.
Stephenson constructed a number of well-known bridges, including the High Level Bridge at Newcastle upon Tyne, the wrought-iron box-section Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait, the Conwy railway bridge between Llandudno Junction and Conwy, Arnside Viaduct in Cumbria and a joint road and rail bridge over the River Nene at Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire.
One of Stephenson's few failures was his design of the Dee bridge, which collapsed under a train. Even before the collapse, he was heavily criticized for the design, particularly for the poor choice of materials which included cast iron.
By road: Off A1 and A1167, near Berwick-upon-Tweed Station.
By rail: Via the East Coast mainline to Berwick-upon-Tweed.
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Haworth, Victoria, Robert Stephenson: Engineer and Scientist, The Rocket Press, ISBN 0-9535-1621-0 (2004)
Herdman, Edward, Berwick: Its Bridges Past and Present, ASIN: B000XCOTES (1887)
Lewis, Peter R., Disaster on the Dee: Robert Stephenson's Nemesis of 1847, NPI Media Group, ISBN-10: 075244266X (2007)
Robbins, Michael, George and Robert Stephenson, HMSO, ISBN 0-11-290342-8 (1981)
Rolt, L.T.C., George and Robert Stephenson: The Railway Revolution, Penguin, ISBN-10: 0140076468 (1988)
Smiles, Samuel, Lives of the Engineers. George and Robert Stephenson. The Locomotive, Adamant Media, ISBN-10: 1421259435 (2005)
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Engineering Timelines - Robert Stephenson
English Heritage - Images of England, Royal Border Bridge
Forgotten Relics - Listed Bridges and Viaducts
Stephenson's Works - former offices of Robert Stephenson & Co's locomotive works
Structurae - Robert Stephenson