North Bridge (Halifax)
Coordinates: 53 ° 43 ′ 38 " N , 1 ° 51 ′ 35" W.
| North Bridge | ||
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| use | Road traffic and pedestrians | |
| Subjugated | River Hebble | |
| place | Halifax , West Yorkshire England | |
| construction | Arch bridge | |
| width | 18.3 m | |
| Number of openings | 2 × 49 m | |
| opening | October 25, 1871 | |
| location | ||
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The North Bridge is an iron and stone Victorian road bridge in Halifax , West Yorkshire in northern England . It crosses the River Hebble valley and connects the city with the roads to Bradford and Leeds . It replaced a previous arch bridge made of stone and was higher to enable the subsequent construction of the Halifax & Ovenden Joint Railway underneath with the associated station. It was opened to traffic in 1871 in a chaotic opening ceremony. Until the construction of a new bridge on the Burdock Way in 1973, it was used by ever increasing traffic. In the present it is still used by local traffic.
Previous bridges
The earliest known bridge was a wooden bridge over the River Hebble that was built in 1277. A stone bridge, first mentioned in 1719, collapsed under a crowd on Rogation Sunday 1770, injuring many - Matthew Oates of Northowram began work on a new crossing of the river in 1772 using stones from Crib Lane on Proximity were broken. This building was 122 m long and had six arches. The structure was 8 m wide and 27 m above the river. This new building was opened in 1774 and a bridge toll was levied for use at the northern end . An iron railing was added when a man from Hipperholme was pushed off the bridge by an unknown assailant in 1819 and lost his life in the process. Part of the bridge supported during a flash flood on July 23, 1855. It was demolished in 1870 to make way for the structure that still exists today.
Building
The North Bridge was designed by the brothers John and James Fraser from Leeds in the neo-Gothic style, John Fraser had considerable knowledge in the construction of railway bridges. Two 49 m exciting semi-elliptical arches with Gothic pointed arch ribs in the spandrels are of a stone pillar with eclectic -looking buttresses supported. They carry a 18.3 m wide roadway. The parapets are richly decorated with four-leaf openings and a central Maltese cross, over which are tinned railings with three-leaf openings. The ribs of the parapet, made mainly of cast iron , have a 17 m long central section made of wrought iron . The central pillar has a height of 22.9 m and the bridge was built 3.3 m higher than the structure previously standing on the site, so that the line of the Halifax & Ovenden Joint Railway could be passed under the northern end. The North Bridge station was directly east of the bridge and the platforms reached under the structure. A drinking water well was built into the south-western tourelle of the bridge. The cost of construction was £ 21,000 (adjusted for inflation £ 1,958,000) or 17 shillings and six pence per square foot of the pavement. It was said that it was the cheapest bridge in England at the time.
Opening ceremony
The bridge was opened on October 25, 1871. There was chaos, because the residents of the place were given half a day's leave to attend the ceremony. They were already swarming over the bridge before the mayor officially approved the structure. The mayor and town honors had formed a platoon with constituency MPs and the Halifax Artillery and Rifle Volunteers and a division of the 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry at 3 p.m. at City Hall. The police had previously created space at the southern end of the bridge, but when a vanguard of soldiers arrived at the bridge, the crowd had taken possession of the previously cleared part of the bridge again. Twenty police officers were eventually placed at the south end of the bridge to hold the people back. The ceremony was attended by Members of the House of Commons James Stansfeld and Frederick Cavendish , the Mayors of Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield , the Master Cutler of Sheffield , the City Treasurer of Leeds and the engineers of the bridge. The ceremony ended with a gun salute from the artillery.
Trams
From 1898 onwards, trams were built from Halifax into the Calder Valley . Several lines ran across the bridge. However, the steep terrain was not ideal for trams and several fatal accidents occurred. In 1906 an eight-ton double-decker tram went out of control on its way down to New Bank and overturned on the North Bridge; two people were killed and eleven others injured.
Modern time
A weight limit of seven tons was imposed in 1968 until work to strengthen the structure was completed. In 1973, Burdock Way, the modern bypass road, was opened to guide traffic on the A58 and A629 over the River Hebble. The North Bridge is still used for local traffic.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Malcalm Bull's Calderdale Companion ( English ) Retrieved on November 15 of 2009.
- ^ RW Rennison: Civil Engineering Heritage-Northern England . Lavenham Press Ltd., Suffolk 1996, ISBN 07277 2518 1 , p. 191.
- ^ John Mayhall: The Annals of Yorkshire ( English ). Joseph Johnson, Leeds 1874.
- ^ David Hanson: The last tram out of Mason Green ( English ) Evening Courier. February 19, 2009. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
- ↑ From Weaver to Web, online visual archive of Calderdale history ( English ) Calderdale Council. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
