A Mystery Stephenson Bridge

I have just been reading Samuel Smiles "The Lives of George and Robert Stephenson", published by The Folio Society, 1975 which has as a back end paper a colour plate of the Victoria Bridge. Now this is obviously not the R.Stephenson Victoria Bridge built across the St Lawrence River in Montreal, Canada as this was built as a single track tubular structure based upon the design for the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Straits. However, the question remains, if not the Victoria Bridge, Montreal then which one is it? The book is a thoroughly good read and can be highly recommended to all those interested in the early development of railways.

Greensands,

Not really a mystery. Search for Victoria Bridge, Washington UK and you'll find a Wikepedia page for it. Part of the Old Main Line from York to Newcastle, which crosses the river Wear East of Sunderland, near Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Track is now lifted.

Regard Tom

I assume that the Folio edition is a reprint of the relevant volume of Smiles' "Lives of the Engineers" published by John Murray. My copy of the History of Roads volume covering John Metcalfe and Thomas Telford has a comprehensive index and I wonder if this feature was omitted from the Folio edition?

Someone once opined that it should be a criminal offence to publish a book without an index!

As it was not a Stephenson designed bridge I cannot see why Smiles would have included the colour print in his book.of the engineers

Agreed, and had he done so I don't think it would have been in colour.

Presumably, Folio have not provided a caption which might explain the apparent mystery.

Smiles was clearly passionate about the importance of roads, canals and railways.

The Bridge was designed by T E Harrison, who was a close associate of the Stephensons. First employed by Robert and later took over from George as Chief Engineer of the York, Berwick and Newcastle Railway in 1850.

He gets a mention in the book in connection with Robert: He afterwards had the notes bound up, and placed in his library. Long years after, when conversing with Thomas Harrison, C.E., at his house in Gloucester Square, he rose from his seat and took down a volume from the shelves. Mr. Harrison observed that the book was in MS., neatly written out. “What have we here?” he asked. The answer was—“When I went to college, I knew the difficulty my father had in collecting the funds to send me there. Before going I studied short-hand; while at Edinburgh, I took down verbatim every lecture; and in the evenings, before I went to bed, I transcribed those lectures word for word. You see the result in that range of books.”

Dave

You do get some odd things with civil engineering projects. If I've got this right Brunel designed a bridge for Clifton accross the Avon. He won the competition however the bridge was built after his death. It's always attributed to IKB which is OK when talking about the concept however the final bridge is a lot different than the one he originally drew and the engineering would have been executed by others.

regards Martin

Greensands,

"As it was not a Stephenson designed bridge I cannot see why Smiles would have included the colour print in his book.of the engineers" - because you are making the assumption that Smiles always got his facts right! As SOD points out Harrison was a close associate of the Stephensons and so it may have been assumed (that word again) they were responsible for the design/ build. Perhaps it was just a nice picture which they had to hand?

Regards Tom

The scene is old but the picture isn't as they didn't do colour printing back then. Best that could be done was hand colouring of black and white photographic prints and they only came about late 19th century.

John

A quick run through the Gutenberg HTML version failed to find that picture, and it certainly isn't Montreal's Victoria Bridge. Many of the book's illustrations are by R.P.Leitch, and the style is similar, so maybe someone at the Folio Society got it wrong.

Couple of interesting insights on George Stephenson the man. Probably a drug addict:

He was habitually careless of his health, and perhaps he indulged in narcotics to a prejudicial extent. Hence he often became "hipped," and sometimes ill. When Mr. Sopwith accompanied him to Egypt in the Titania, in 1856, he succeeded in persuading Mr. Stephenson to limit his indulgence in cigars and stimulants, and the consequence was that by the end of the voyage he felt himself, as he said, "quite a new man."

And, an early example of old men always believing youngsters don't know what real work is:

It was while working at Willington as a brakesman that he first learned how best to handle a spade in throwing ballast out of the ships' holds. This casual employment seems to have left upon his mind the most lasting impression of what "hard work" was; and he often used to revert to it, and say to the young men about him, "Ah, ye lads! there's none o' ye know what wark is."

He was criticising mid-Victorian toughs, goodness knows what he'd have said about Baby Boomers!

Dave

Perhaps if he'd used a shovel he'd have found it easier. As evidenced in our ME club lots of people don't know the difference. The same people can't be bothered cleaning them off after mixing concrete, but that's another matter.

i know this isn't strictly related to the main topic and a bit late but for those interested in the Clifton suspension bridge there is a very good lecture on YouTube by Julia Elton titled 'who designed the Clifton suspension bridge: facts and fiction'