Salford Branch Viaduct – Manchester, UK - Railroad Bridges on Waymarking.com

The Castlefield area of the City of Manchester.
This area is so named because of the remains of a Roman fort in the area.

Manchester was one of the world’s first industrial cities and indeed claims to have started the industrial revolution with the building of the Bridgewater Canal. This canal was the first canal in Britain that did not make use of any existing waterways. It was built by the Duke of Bridgewater to connect his coal mines at Worsley with Manchester and terminated at Castlefield near to the River Medlock. The canal boats were able to carry around ten times more coal than was previously possible by cart. In fact, the canal was so effective that the price of coal in Manchester fell by over half within a year of its opening. This meant that the use of steam power in factories became economically viable.

The Bridgewater canal reached Manchester in 1761 at the Castlefield Basin. It was later extended to provide a link to Liverpool on the west coast. Many factories were built around Castlefield and so the canal started to carry many other goods as well as coal.

In 1799 The Rochdale Canal was joined onto the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield and connected Manchester to Rochdale. By 1804 the Rochdale Canal was extended to Sowerby Bridge and became the first canal that crossed the Pennine Hills. From Sowerby Bridge it was possible to reach Hull on the East coast by use of a number of other linked canals and rivers.

The next stage of Manchester’s development was the arrival of railways in 1830 and there are four separate railway viaducts that cross the Bridgewater Canal and wharves in Castlefield.

During the 20th Century canals and railways declined in use and Castlefield became largely derelict. However in 1982 the area became the first Urban Heritage Park and large parts of the area have now been restored. Apartments, pubs and restaurants have been built on the site and it is now a popular and interesting area to visit and explore.

The Salford Branch Viaduct
At this spot is one of the four railway viaducts that cross the area. Three of the viaducts stand very close together but the Salford branch viaduct, is separate from the others at this point. It was built by the Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway in 1848-9.

It uses a brick arch to cross the Staffordshire arm of the Castlefield basin, before passing under the later Cornbrook and Great Northern viaduct and intersected with the then main line to Altrincham at a point about 300m west of Deansgate Station. The whole viaduct from Piccadilly to Ordsall Junction is 1.75 miles (2.82 km) long and consists of 224 brick arches.

See this Wikipedia page for a fuller description of both Castlefield and all the bridges in the area.

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

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