Union Bridge (Tweed)

55.752583333333 - 2.1066666666667Koordinaten: 55 ° 45 ' 9.3 " N, 2 ° 6' 24 " W

F1

Tweed

The named Union Bridge and Union Suspension Bridge or Chain Bridge, which spans the River Tweed between Horncliffe, Northumberland in England and Fishwick, Scottish Borders in Scotland.

The wrought iron chain bridge was built by engineer Samuel Brown, between August 1819 and July 1820 in less than 12 months, while for a similar bridge at that time about three years were needed. She was the first suspension bridge in Europe, which could be used by carts. Today it is the oldest suspension bridge, which is still used for road traffic.

Description

The bridge has an unusual, non-symmetrical side view. Your chains are worn on the western Scottish end of the bridge from a standing directly on the shore, 18 m high brick portal, which has a 3.65 m wide and more than 5 m high passage for the road. On the east, the English end of the bridge chains are removed immediately anchored something from the shore in a rock wall, so that the road is guided laterally on the bridge deck and the bridge deck begins only at some distance from the anchor. The span of the chain is substantially greater than the length of the bridge deck. The pillars axes are 132 m (432 ft) apart, while the bridge deck only a span of 110 m ( 361 ft ) has. It is 5.50 m (18 ft) wide.

The slightly biased upwards bridge deck of Union Bridge consists of wooden beams, which were previously provided with iron ruts for the wheels of the carts. The roadway is supported by twelve chains of about 4.5 m long iron rods. In each case two chains close to each other form a strand, are stacked vertically on both sides of three such strings, said connecting elements of the next higher chain ( ft 5 ) in each case are shifted by 1.5 m. The vertical suspension rods are secured to the connecting elements, only one strand, so that only one in four rod depends on the same chain. Below the bridge, the suspension rods are connected to transverse rods which pass under the bridge. The chains are passed through the buildings on both ends of the bridge and anchored on the west side of more than 7 m deep in the ground, attached to the eastern side, however, within the construction of the rock wall. At a later renovation a wire for reinforcement was drafted above the chains. At the opening ceremony in July 1820, first a stress test with 12 loaded wagons was made with an estimated total weight of 20 tons. After that, the audience could not be retained longer. It was estimated that 700 people were on the bridge at the same time, corresponding to a weight of about 47 tons. But kept the bridge also this unexpected stress test without any problems.

Until the opening of the Menai Suspension Bridge, whose construction began earlier, but was not completed until 1826, it had the longest span of all modern bridges.

The bridge stands as a Grade I listed building and as a Scheduled Ancient Monument under monument protection.