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The Severn Gorge in Shropshire was created after the last Ice Age 15,000 years ago, when a huge lake overflowed east of the Welsh mountains and carved a deep chasm through layers of coal, iron ore, clay and limestone. Engineers in the Gorge used iron to make the first iron railways carrying the first iron wheeled trucks. In the Eighteenth Century it was said that the River Severn was the second busiest river in Europe. |
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The Ironbridge Gorge was famous for having more furnaces and forges within 3 kilometres (2 miles) of river bank than anywhere else in the world. |
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Neither Thomas Telford nor Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed or built the Bridge. |
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Abraham Darby's bridge was to be the first in the world to use Cast Iron structurally and artists and writers, spies and engineers came from all over the world to marvel at "That most incomparable piece of architecture". |
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Nobody knows for certain where the Iron Bridge was cast, but it is generally thought that it was cast at Darby's Furnace about 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) away. |
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The lettering on the outer two iron arches of the Bridge state 'This Bridge was cast at Coalbrook = Dale and erected in the year MDCCLXXIX (1779). |
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The Bridge consists of 384 tonnes of iron which would have taken one furnace over three months to produce. |
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The ribs of the Bridge were cast in two pieces and joined at the centre. Each half rib weighs nearly 6 tonnes, about the same as eight family cars. |
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The Iron Bridge opened for business, charging its first tolls on New Year's Day 1781. |
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Everyone was required to pay a toll when passing over the Bridge, even members of the Royal Family. In 1934 the Bridge was closed to vehicles and listed as an ancient monument. |
