The world's first iron bridge was completed in 1781 at Coalbrookdale, which river does it span?
Victoria Bridge, Worcestershire Victoria Bridge, Worcestershire The Victoria Bridge is a 200-foot single span railway bridge crossing the River Severn between Arley and Bewdley in Worcestershire, England. At the time of its construction, the structure was the longest single-span cast iron bridge in Britain. Victoria Bridge is a cast-iron arch bridge, with four arch ribs each of nine parts bolted together. The arch elements were cast by the Coalbrookdale Company, and the bridge built by the company of Thomas Brassey, Samuel Morton Peto and Edward Betts. Its design is almost identical to Albert Edward Bridge which also spans the Severn at Coalbrookdale in
The Iron Bridge being at Buildwas two miles away. The iron bridge was therefore proposed to link the industrial town of Broseley with the smaller mining town of Madeley and the industrial centre of Coalbrookdale. The use of the river by boat traffic and the steep sides of the gorge meant that any bridge should ideally be of a single span, and sufficiently high to allow tall ships to pass underneath. The steepness and instability of the banks was problematic for building a bridge, and there was no point where roads on opposite sides of the river converged. The Iron Bridge was the