Over Bridge, also known as Telford's Bridge, is a single span stone

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...

spanning the canalised West Channel of the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

near

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

, England. It links Over to Alney Island. Although there was a crossing at Over recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, this bridge was built by

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...

between 1825 and 1828, to carry traffic east–west. It was opened in 1830 and remained in use for traffic until 1974. Until the

Severn Bridge The Severn Bridge () is a Controlled-access highway, motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn crossing, Severn road crossi ...

was built in the 1960s, this was the lowest point downstream that the Severn could be crossed by road bridge. The arch spans , and was based on

Jean-Rodolphe Perronet Jean-Rodolphe Perronet (27 October 1708 – 27 February 1794) was a French architect and structural engineer known for his many stone arch bridges. His best-known work is the Pont de la Concorde (Paris), Pont de la Concorde (1787). Early life P ...

's 1774 design for a bridge over the

River Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres p ...

at Neuilly. It combines both an elliptical profile over most of the

soffit A soffit is an exterior architectural feature, generally the horizontal, aloft underside of the roof edge. Its archetypal form, sometimes incorporating or implying the projection of rafters or trusses over the exterior of supporting walls, is t ...

with a segmental profile at its faces. This feature is known as a corne de vache (French for cow's horn). When built, the arch sank by when its timber centering was removed, and another due to settlement of the arch foundations. Passage Through Telfords Bridge - geograph

Passage Through Telfords Bridge - geograph

Today it is a pedestrian-only bridge, and is in the guardianship of

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

as a

scheduled ancient monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

. Road traffic on the A40 crosses the Severn on a new bridge alongside and upstream of it. This is the last road bridge over the Severn before the Severn Crossings, and was the most downstream free crossing until tolls were removed from the Severn Bridge and Second Severn Crossing in December 2018, although the

already had free access for pedestrians, cyclists and mopeds and, as previously stated, there is no vehicular access to Over Bridge. The bridge is connected by segregated bicycle paths around Alney Island, to Highnam and Gloucester. The Over Bridge can be seen from the train travelling from

on the way to

Lydney Lydney is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is on the west bank of the River Severn in the Forest of Dean District, and is 16 miles (25 km) southwest of Gloucester. The town has been Bypass ( ...

Chepstow Chepstow () is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the western end of the ...

on the Gloucester to Newport section of the former South Wales Railway.

References

*Cragg, R., ''Civil Engineering Heritage: Wales & West Central England'', Thomas Telford Publishing, 2nd edn., 1997 *Witts, C., ''A Century of Bridges'', River Severn Publications, 2nd edn., 1998

External links

Over Bridge page at English Heritage

Over Bridge on the BBC website
{{River Severn Bridges across the River Severn Bridges in Gloucestershire Bridges completed in 1828 English Heritage sites in Gloucestershire Bridges by Thomas Telford Scheduled monuments in Gloucestershire 1828 establishments in England

See also

References

External links