Skew Bridge Fairfield Street Manchester

In connection with the London Road Station widening referred to in “Railway Notes” of June 19, a correspondent sends an extract from “The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales,” vol iii, page 336, 1842, which illustrates the impression made by the old skew bridge built in 1839. Among works of an extraordinary and memorable nature posterity will no doubt pronounce the Fairfield Street iron skew viaduct, on the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, as one of the most interesting and scientific achievements of the present day. It has been erected from an original design by George Watson Buck, Esq, engineer in chief to the company. The erection crosses the line of railway at Fairfield Street, Manchester, at the very acute angle of 24.5 degrees, a greater obliquity than of any other arch hitherto executed in Great Britain. The abutments are constructed of the most massive pieces of Summit stone, and each abutment is divided into six compartments perpendicular to the ribs composing the bridge; the joints of the masonry are parallel to each other, an adaptation to the circumstances of the case, which, in the most perfect manner, secures its complete bonding together. This part of the work has been executed by Messrs Pattison of Manchester, the contractors. The bridge is composed entirely of iron and consists of six arches or ribs, beautifully tied together by diagonal braces. … It is perhaps not the least remarkable feature in the mechanism of this bridge that it is so constructed as to allow the tremendous power produced by expansion its full play without in the least degree straining any part of the structure, or as likely to effect its permanent stability. The ribs were all closed or fixed early in March, when the weather was comparatively cold, and the centres were struck on 9th May, when the temperature considerably increased, by which the expansion of the ribs was such as to have completely liberated the centering that many of the wooden wedges were actually loose in their places. The angle of obliquity was preserved with singular accuracy, the arch not having altered its position in the slightest degree when the centres were struck.

Our correspondent expresses the hope that some sort of record, photographic or otherwise, will be made of this and other vanishing engineering feats of the past. {Manchester Guardian 27 June 1907]

Reference           Manchester Guardian 27 June 1907 page 5 – Miscellany