Rochdale Canal Bridge 30b Carrying Manchester To Leeds Railway – Todmorden, UK - Railroad Bridges on Waymarking.com

The Canal History
The Rochdale canal is 32 miles long and connects Manchester on the west side of the Pennine Hills and Sowerby Bridge on the east side. The Rochdale Canal was completed in 1804 and is one of three canals that cross the Pennine hills. This is the only one that doesn’t use tunnels. In addition it was a broad canal with bridges and locks that allowed boats of 14 feet width to pass through.

The one downside of not using tunnels is that it originally had 92 locks. These days two of them have been combined into one deep lock.

Competition from railways and roads subsequently led to a decline in goods being carried and by 1937 the only section left in operation was at the Manchester end of the canal.

In 1965 there was talk of abandoning the canal but by this time leisure boating had become very popular in the UK and there was a campaign to keep it open. Work was started and the canal slowly re-opened in a number of different stages. The whole length finally reopened in September 2007.

Details of the bridge
This bridge carries the railway line that was one of the contributing factors to the canal’s decline. The line and this bridge in particular were designed by the famous railway engineer George Stephenson.

The rail line and canal both share fairly narrow valleys across the Pennine hills and at this point the railway line is at a much higher level on the hillside. The bridge is therefore a large structure as it carries the line at a very oblique angle over the canal.

There are two canal locks on either side of the bridge. Lock 22 to the south west of the bridge is particularly close.

The bridge was built in 1840 and as was common in the Victorian age, it is ornately decorated and castellated, with turrets and arrow slits. All the bridges on the canal retain their original numbers from before it was restored, and are numbered in sequence from the start at Sowerby Bridge. The fact that this bridge number is 30b indicates that it was built between the original canal bridges 30 and 31. (Bridge 30a is a road bridge that was also added after the canal was built).

The original cast-iron bridge has a segmental arch, but there is now a 20th Century square sectional steel bridge in between the original steel arches.

The co-ordinates were taken from the canal tow path next to the bridge support on the Todmorden side of the bridge.

This bridge was made a Grade II listed building by English Heritage in 1984 before the canal was restored, reference number 1229730.

Bridge Type: Arch Bridge Usage: Railroad Moving Bridge: This bridge is static (has no moving pieces)

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/15/2013 hulletteers visited it