Bridge, Gransha Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT 19

Gransha Road Bridge, Bangor

This single-arch road-over-railway bridge was built by the Belfast & County Down Railway Company in 1860 to carry the Gransha Road over the Newtownards-Donaghadee section of the former railway line. The bridge was designed by Sir John Macneill, the BCDR's engineer at the time, and construction began in October 1859, with the bridge probably erected in 1860. Although of modest scale, the bridge demonstrates the high quality of construction typical of railway company engineering in the later 19th century.

The bridge is built with random rubble blackstone for the abutments, spandrels and parapets, embellished with lighter sandstone dressings. The abutments are edged with rock-faced and margined sandstone block quoins. A chamfered string course, similarly detailed, runs through the arch at spring level and around the quoins.

The arch itself is of semi-elliptical profile with vee-jointed sandstone voussoirs, also chamfered. Despite the arch being skewed, the soffit's brickwork is laid orthogonally, a combination of construction techniques that is of particular note. A curved string course identical to that through the arch runs across the arch crown to delineate the bottoms of the parapets. Shallow abutments to each side also feature rock-faced and margined quoins. The parapets have a slightly curved profile matching that of the string courses and are coped with vermiculated sandstone blocks, chamfered and oversailing to their outsides. Some delamination of these coping blocks has occurred, particularly along the east parapet.

The slightly humped deck carries a two-lane carriageway with a footpath along each side. The bridge was built with the intention of eventually accommodating double track in anticipation of cross-channel traffic via Donaghadee Harbour, though in practice a single track sufficed throughout the line's entire life.

The Newtownards-Donaghadee line opened on 3 June 1861. Donaghadee Harbour was being constructed by the Government as a terminus for a proposed Royal Mail steamer service to Portpatrick, but the intended packet boat service never materialised, so traffic on the branch never matched the BCDR's expectations. The line was served by several stations, the closest to this bridge being Ballygrainey, a short distance east on the Groomsport Road, where an identical bridge exists.

The BCDR was nationalised and became part of the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948. The entire Belfast-Donaghadee line was closed by the UTA on 24 April 1950, but the bridge continues to serve road traffic over the defunct railway line.

The bridge is set in agricultural land with small fields and hedgerows. The former single-track railway cutting is now waterlogged and partly infilled at each end with rubbish. The southeast abutment is now obscured by a concrete revetment along the north side of a yard belonging an adjacent house.