GAUXHOLME VIADUCT 1840’s Todmorden, Yorksh. George Stephenson HEW2 SD931-233 (not visited)
Thomas Telford gave credit to the Leeds engineer George Leather for the concept of an arch above the road bed which supports it by means of iron rod hangers which Leathers first used in the famous Stanley Ferry Aqueduct. Although these bridges are often called suspension bridges, the rods instead of flexible chains make them much more rigid and much safer as rail road bridges. Telford as well as George and Robert Stephenson also used this type of bridge.
This bridge crosses the Rochdale Canal in an 102 foot span. The arches have a decorative cast iron horizontal member and an arcade of sub-arches above the hangers. The bridge itself is part of a curving masonry viaduct carrying George Stephenson’s Manchester and Leeds route of 1840