ENGINE ARM AQUEDUCT 1827-30 Thomas Telford HEW 492 SP024 888 N56o 29' 53.4" W1o 57' 59.1"
James Brinkley's and John Smearton's original 18th century canal followed the contour line to maintain its level. Thomas Telford laid out a new, shorter line for the Birmingham Canal in the late 1820's which bypassed some of the loops of the old canal but which also involved more locks and more cuts. Canals need to be replenished at their summit to maintain their water level. This aqueduct carries water from the Rotton Park Reservoir (now called the Edgbaston Resevoir) at the top of the Smethwick lock flight twenty feet above the Birmingham Canal’s later and lower level as part of Telford's improvements to this waterway. The Smethwick Engine of its name pumped water from the lower new canal level back up to the summit.
The ironwork was cast by the Horseley Company. The cast iron trough is supported on a single arch of 52 foot span with five ribs with the tow paths supported by cast iron arcades decorated with gothic designs. The bridge spandrels, similar to Telford bridges at are braced with radial ribs. The rhomboidal openings in the spandrels create an optical illusion that they are curved which gives the bridge both an airy and a bold posture. Telford used this design for the spandrels of other bridges: Meole Brace Bridge 1813, Cound II 1818, Stokesay Bridge 1823, Cantlop Bridge 1812 and Atcham Bridge 1818 of which only Cantlop Bridge has avoided dismantling.