Gaunless Bridge

Coordinates: 54 ° 37 ′ 59 "  N , 1 ° 42 ′ 46"  W.

Gaunless Bridge
use	former railway bridge
Crossing of	River Gaunless
place	West Auckland , County Durham
Number of openings	four
Longest span	3.78 m
completion	1823/1824
planner	George Stephenson
location

The Gaunless Bridge was a railway bridge on the Stockton and Darlington Railway over the River Gaunless in West Auckland , County Durham in north-east England .

The bridge, built according to the plans of George Stephenson , was one of the first iron railway bridges and probably the first bridge with lens girders .

Remainder of an abutment

Soon after its completion in October 1823, the bridge was badly damaged by floods. When it was rebuilt in 1824, Stephenson had four fields with spans of 3.78 m (12 feet 5 inches) built in instead of the original three bridge fields . It had five yokes , each made of a pair of cast iron pipes, so that their outer ends did not rest on the abutments , but on the pipe supports. The straps of the lens holders were made of wrought iron .

After changes to the railway lines, the bridge was closed in 1856. In 1901 their metal parts were dismantled. They are now set up in front of the National Railway Museum (York) . The remains of the abutments can still be seen in West Auckland.

It cannot be ruled out that Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves saw this bridge on one of his many trips to England and was inspired by it to wear the lens, known in the German-speaking area as the Laves beam .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gaunless Bridge (relocated) on engineering timelines.com
2. ↑ George Stephenson's Metal Bridge West Auckland on West Auckland Web