Citizendia

Brittania Bridge
Brittania Bridge
The post 1970 Britannia Bridge from the east along the Menai Strait, retains Stephenson's original piers
CarriesAutomobiles
CrossesMenai Strait
LocaleFlag of Wales Wales, Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Designtwo-tier steel truss arch bridge
Total length1,151 ft (351 m)
The original box section Britannia Bridge, in a circa 1852 illustration
The original box section Britannia Bridge, in a circa 1852 illustration
Postcard picture of the bridge from circa 1886 [1]
Postcard picture of the bridge from circa 1886 [1]
Section of the original wrought-iron tubular bridge standing in front of the modern bridge
Section of the original wrought-iron tubular bridge standing in front of the modern bridge
Monumental lion, one of four guarding each corner of Britannia Bridge
Monumental lion, one of four guarding each corner of Britannia Bridge

Britannia Bridge (Welsh: Pont Britannia) is a bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales, originally a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular box-section spans, and now a two-tier steel truss arch bridge. The Menai Strait ( Afon Menai, the "River Menai" is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about 14 miles (23 km long which separates the island of Anglesey The Menai Strait ( Afon Menai, the "River Menai" is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about 14 miles (23 km long which separates the island of Anglesey The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A truss arch Bridge combines the elements of the Truss bridge and the Arch bridge. The lion ( Panthera leo) is a member of the family Felidae and one of four Big cats in the Genus Panthera. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic The Menai Strait ( Afon Menai, the "River Menai" is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about 14 miles (23 km long which separates the island of Anglesey History There are numerous Megalithic monuments and Menhirs present on Anglesey testifying to the presence of mankind in prehistory A tubular bridge is a Bridge built as a rigid Box girder section within which the traffic is carried QtubIronPillarJPG|thumb|right| Iron pillar at Delhi India containing 98% wrought iron]] Wrought iron is commercially pure Iron. A truss arch Bridge combines the elements of the Truss bridge and the Arch bridge.

Contents

The bridge design

The opening of the Menai Bridge in 1826, a mile (1. The Menai Suspension Bridge, or Pont Grog y Borth in Welsh, is a Suspension bridge between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales For the game see 1826 (board game. Year 1826 ( MDCCCXXVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display 6 km) to the east of where Britannia Bridge was later built, provided the first fixed road link between Anglesey and the mainland. The increasing popularity of rail travel necessitated a second bridge to provide a direct rail link between London and the port of Holyhead, the Chester and Holyhead Railway. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Holyhead ( IPA /ˈhɒlihɛd/ Welsh: Caergybi, "the fort of Saint Cybi " is the largest town in the county of The Chester and Holyhead Railway was incorporated out of a proposal to link Holyhead, the traditional port for the Irish Mail with London by way of the

Other railway schemes were proposed, including one in 1838 to cross Telford's existing Menai Bridge. Year 1838 ( MDCCCXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 - 2 September 1834 was born in Westerkirk, Scotland. Railway pioneer George Stephenson was invited to comment on this proposal but stated his concern about re-using the suspension bridge. George Stephenson ( 9 June 1781 &ndash 12 August 1848) was an English Civil engineer and mechanical engineer By 1840, a Treasury committee decided broadly in favour of Stephenson's proposals, with final consent to the route including Britannia Bridge given in 1845. Year 1840 ( MDCCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Year 1845 ( MDCCCXLV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Stephenson's son Robert was appointed as chief engineer. Robert Stephenson FRS (16 October 1803 &ndash 12 October 1859 was an English Civil engineer.

The design required the strait to remain accessible to shipping, and to be sufficiently stiff to support the heavy loading associated with trains, so Stephenson constructed a bridge with two main spans of 460-feet (140-m) long rectangular iron tubes, each weighing 1,500 long tons (1,700 short tons) [2], supported by masonry piers, the centre one of which was built on the Britannia Rock. Two additional spans of 230-feet (70-m) length completed the bridge making a 1,511-feet (461-m) long continuous girder. The trains were to run inside the tubes. Up until then the longest wrought iron span had been 31 feet 6 inches (9. 6 m). The bridge was decorated by four large lions sculpted in limestone by John Thomas, two at either end. Limestone is a Sedimentary rock composed largely of the Mineral Calcite ( Calcium carbonate: CaCO3 John Thomas (1813 - 1862 was a British sculptor who worked on Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster. These were immortalised in the following Welsh rhyme by the bard John Evans (1826 - 1888), who was born in nearby Porthaethwy :

Pedwar llew tew
Heb ddim blew
Dau 'rochr yma
A dau 'rochr drew

Four fat lions
Without any fur
Two this side
And two the other side

The lions cannot be seen from the A55 although the idea of raising them to road level has been suggested from time to time. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic Menai Bridge (Porthaethwy is a small Town on the island of Anglesey in north Wales. The A55, also known as the North Wales Expressway, is a major road in Britain.

Stephenson retained the services of two distinguished engineers as consultants. William Fairbairn was an old friend of his father. Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet ( of Ardwick) ( February 19, 1789 - August 18, 1874) was a Scottish Eaton Hodgkinson was a leading theorist on strength of materials. Eaton A Hodgkinson ( February 26, 1789 - June 18, 1861) was an English Engineer, a pioneer of the application of Mathematics In Materials science, the strength of a material refers to the material's ability to resist an applied force Hodgkinson believed that it would be impractical to make the tubes stiff enough, and advised auxiliary suspension from chains. Stiffness is the resistance of an elastic body to Deformation by an applied Force. A chain is a series of connected links. This article is about the literal physical chain However, Fairbairn believed chains unnecessary declaring:

Provided that the parts are well-proportioned and the plates properly rivetted, you may strip off the chains and have it as a useful Monument of the enterprise and energy of the age in which it was constructed.

The consensus of received engineering opinion was with Hodgkinson, but Stephenson, rather nervously, backed Fairbairn's analysis. A 75 feet (23 m) span model was constructed and tested at Fairbairn's Millwall shipyard, and used as a basis for the final design. For the football team see Millwall FC. Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships These can be Yachts military Although Stephenson had pressed for the tubes to be elliptical in section, Fairbairn's preferred rectangular section was adopted. In Mathematics, an ellipse (from the Greek ἔλλειψις literally absence) is a Conic section, the locus of points in a In Geometry, a rectangle is defined as a Quadrilateral where all four of its angles are Right angles A rectangle with vertices ABCD would be denoted as Fairbairn was responsible both for the cellular construction of the top part of the tubes, and for developing the stiffening of the side panels.

Construction and use

Begun in 1846, the bridge was opened on 5 March 1850. For the game see 1846 (board game. Year 1846 ( MDCCCXLVI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a For the game see 1850 (board game. 1850 ( MDCCCL) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link For its time, it was a bridge of "magnitude and singular novelty", far surpassing in length contemporary cast beam or plate girder iron bridges. One aspect of its method of construction was also novel; the box sections were assembled on-shore, then floated out into position before being lifted into place. In spite of the heavier loadings placed on it in its later life, the bridge was "one of the most easily maintained and successful railway bridges" in the UK, and "as the first really large wrought iron bridge of the girder type it has unique significance in civil engineering history". The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design construction and maintenance of the physical and naturally built Stephenson went on, in short order, to design the High Level Bridge in Newcastle Upon Tyne, which can be seen as a second and more elegant version of the Britannia Bridge; and the design of the bridge and the construction techniques employed also influenced Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the design and construction of the Royal Albert Bridge across the River Tamar at Saltash. The High Level Bridge is a road and railway Bridge spanning the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead in North East Newcastle upon Tyne ( (often shortened to Newcastle) is a city and Metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, England Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 &ndash 15 September 1859 (ˈɪzəmbɑrd ˈkɪŋdəm brʊˈnɛl was a British Engineer. The Royal Albert Bridge (sometimes called the Brunel Bridge or Saltash Bridge) spans the River Tamar in the United Kingdom between The Tamar is a River in south western England, that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east and Cornwall (to the west Saltash (Essa is a town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.

Fire and reconstruction

During the evening of 23 May 1970 the bridge was greatly damaged when boys playing on the bridge dropped a burning torch, starting a fire (see Britannia Bridge Official Fire Report, BBC News video). Events 1430 - Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. As a consequence the bridge was completely rebuilt and reopened in 1972 with the spans supported by archways. The deck has two levels: the lower still carries the rail line, and the upper supports a single-carriageway section of the A55 road. The A55, also known as the North Wales Expressway, is a major road in Britain. The new bridge was designed by Husband & Co. , now part of Mott MacDonald. The Mott MacDonald Group is a UK based employee-owned company that provides engineering consultancy design planning project management and consulting services to the global market The Anglesey Coastal Path passes below the bridge. Anglesey Coastal Path cost £14 million and runs virtually within the length of the entire Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on Anglesey.

Proposed Bridge Improvement

In November 2007, a Public Consultation exercise into the ‘A55 Britannia Bridge Improvement’ commenced. The perceived problems stated include:

In the document, four options are presented, each with their own benefits and constraints

See also

Stephenson's only other tubular iron bridge, the Conwy railway bridge between Llandudno Junction and Conwy, remains in use, and can be seen at close quarters from another of Telford's elegant suspension bridges crossing the River Conwy. Conwy railway bridge carries the North Wales coast railway line across the River Conwy between Llandudno Junction and the town of Conwy. Llandudno (pronounced /ɬan'dɪdnɔ/ is a Seaside resort and Town in Conwy, Wales. Conwy (formerly Conway in English is a Town in Conwy county borough on the north coast of Wales, which faces Deganwy across The River Conwy ( Welsh: Afon Conwy) is a River in north Wales.

Bibliography

External links

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