High Bridge, Reading

High Bridge is a bridge across the River Kennet in the town centre of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It is the oldest surviving bridge across the Kennet.

History

The first bridge in Reading to be built over the Kennet was located at Seven Bridges, in the oldest part of town. High Bridge was the second to be built, and provided access to Reading Abbey (founded in 1121) and its environs.

By 1788, the original timber-framed bridge required replacement, and a stone bridge able to handle wagon traffic generated by the textile industry was commissioned. Designed by architect Robert Furze Brettingham, it was built at a cost of £3,500.

References

External links

Media related to High Bridge, Reading at Wikimedia Commons

Highbridge

Highbridge or High Bridge may mean:

High Bridge (Coatesville, Pennsylvania)

The Coatesville High Bridge is a stone masonry arch railroad viaduct that crosses the valley of the West Branch Brandywine Creek at Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad between 1902 and 1904, it has ten arches (eight of 78 feet (24 m) and two of 88 feet (27 m)) and spans a total length of 934 feet (285 m), with wing walls extending it to 1,287 feet (392 m). 78 feet (24 m) high, the bridge was built to accommodate four standard gauge railroad tracks, with a total length of 52 feet (16 m).

The Pennsylvania Railroad's Main Line passes along the north side of Coatesville on the southern slope of the North Valley Hills. The bridge carries the Main Line across the water gap cut by the Brandywine, as well as the former Wilmington and Northern Branch of the Reading Railroad and Pennsylvania Route 82.

Precursors

The first bridge at the site was built by the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in 1832. It was a single-track wood span on stone piers. The bridge was widened to double-track in 1854. This bridge was replaced by a cast iron bridge in 1867, and that in turn by a wrought iron Pratt truss in 1890. By around the start of the 20th century, however, the double-track bridge was proving to be a bottleneck in the quadruple-track main line on both sides, and plans were made for a bridge that would carry four tracks across the Brandywine Valley.

High Bridge (St. Paul)

The High Bridge is a bridge that carries Minnesota State Highway 149 over the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was built and opened in 1987 at a cost of $20 million. The bridge is a two-lane street setup over the river. The High Bridge has a height of 160 feet (49 m), making it the highest bridge in St. Paul.

The current bridge replaced a 2,770-foot (840 m) iron Warren deck truss bridge constructed in 1889. In 1904 the original bridge was partially destroyed by a tornado or severe storm and the southernmost five spans had to be rebuilt. With modest alterations it served for nearly a century, but in 1977 an inspection found irreparable structural deficiencies. The Minnesota Department of Transportation enacted a weight restriction on the bridge until it was closed in 1984 and demolished the following year. The ornamental ironwork on the replacement was built using iron from the old bridge. The first bridge had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and was delisted in 1988.