Broadford Bridge, to north of Mellon Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 5QU

Broadford Bridge is a double-span former railway bridge with a central supporting pier, built around 1850. It carried the Great Northern Railway over the Strule River, north of Mellon Road in Omagh, County Tyrone.

The bridge displays significant engineering merit for its time. The structure is notably minimal and economical despite being designed to carry substantial loading from improved rolling stock. The design represents an important progression in structural engineering technology during the mid-nineteenth century.

The bridge is constructed of coursed squared rockfaced stone piers and abutments, with a V-shaped cutwater to the central pier. The carriageway consists of a pair of iron plate girders connected by a series of beams that originally supported timber sleepers for the railway line itself. A wrought-iron handrail with tubular horizontal members is fitted to each side, supported on wrought-iron brackets.

Historically, Broadford Bridge first appears on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey Map in 1854 as part of the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway. The Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway Company was authorised in 1845 and had reached Strabane by April 1847. The line subsequently extended to Omagh in 1852, Fintona in 1853, and Enniskillen in 1854. The construction cost was relatively low, around £10,000 per mile. The new railway brought significant commercial advantages to towns along its route and to surrounding agricultural areas, allowing goods and livestock from Omagh and Strabane to be conveyed northwards to the port of Londonderry. In 1860, the line was leased to the Dundalk & Enniskillen Railway Company, later known as the Irish North Western Railway Company. The line appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1905 as part of the Great Northern Railway, following the merger in 1876.

The bridge is located at a wide section of the river in a rural setting, accessed through private ground from the former embankment to north and south. The riverbank on either side is largely overgrown. Although no longer in use, Broadford Bridge remains an important element of the development of the railway during the nineteenth century and is of significant industrial archaeological interest. Similar contemporary examples include Breen Bridge over the Mourne River in Strabane District and Blackrock Bridge.