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Travelog: Cleveland Bridge

While I was in England last week, I briefly visited the city of Bath. There’s a lot to look at there, but let me start with the Cleveland Bridge over the River Avon.

The top view is a little boring except for the non-structural toll houses, little Greek temples over the walkways, but I didn’t go down into the gorge to get a view of the iron arches from below. There’s a good painting from 1830 at the link above.

A nice touch that you don’t often see, from the original construction, is credits:

In this case, credits cast in iron as part of the handrail. I’m not entirely sure that the little superscript T and R were needed for clarity, but they feel like grace notes, cast in iron. (Note the iron curb as well.) The structural designer, William Hazledine, is not as famous in the US as he deserves to be, given his role in early iron bridge construction.

Finally, the bridge structure has been refurbished but not upgraded, leading to an honest, necessary, and perfectly acceptable sign:

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