Ashton Swing Bridge

ST5672 BRISTOL 901-1/41/10087 Ashton Swing Bridge

II

Railway and road hydraulic swing bridge, nowfixed. 1905-6 for Bristol Corporation and the Great Western Railway, chief engineer j.C.lnglis, contractor john Lysaght and Co of Bristol, hydraulic machinery by Armstrong Whitworth and Co. Steel, with squared rock faced limestone abutments. Two piers with the southern one supporting the swinging apparatus. Enormous Whipple Murphy truss swinging span weighing some 1000 tons which carried a double track line to the north bank of the Avon New Cut thus opening up the south side of the Floating Harbour to rail traffic as well as the north bank via the Cumberland Basin bridge. History: This bridge was constructed as a part of the Bristol Harbour lines from the Portishead branch to Canon's Marsh and Wapping' Wharf which opened on 4-10-1906. It was a joint initiative by the City and the GWR but the great cost of ?70,000 fell mainly on the Corporation as the railway had agreed to pay only ?18,000, which was the first estimate. It originally carried a road, and the operating cabin at the top of the girder but there is now little sign of this; it still carries a single rail track. It was operated hydraulically from the dock system and used 182 gallons of water a time. It was one of the last installations added to the docks hydraulic system. In early years it was swung on average 10 times a day, but this soon declined and it has not been swung since 1936. Bristol Corporation rescinded the obligation on the railway to maintain it as an opening bridge in 1951. The road deck and operating cabin were removed following the completion of the new road system associated with the Plimsoll Bridge in 1965. It is an unusual example of a combined road/rail swing bridge. References: E.T.MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, Ian Allan, revised ed. 1964, Vol II, p 228. John Lord and Jem Southam, The Floating Harbour, The Redcliffe Press, 1983, pps 47-8,64-5,77-8.

Listing NGR: ST5687972083