Cobweb Bridge

Last updated

Cobweb Bridge forms part of the Five Weirs Walk along the River Don from Blonk Street, near the centre of Sheffield, eastwards to Meadowhall. The bridge is held in place by a lattice-work of suspension and tensioning cables and sits over the waters of the Don and below the railway arches of the old Victoria Station, now long gone. Spider Bridge.jpg
Cobweb Bridge forms part of the Five Weirs Walk along the River Don from Blonk Street, near the centre of Sheffield, eastwards to Meadowhall. The bridge is held in place by a lattice-work of suspension and tensioning cables and sits over the waters of the Don and below the railway arches of the old Victoria Station, now long gone.

The Cobweb Bridge, also known as Spider Bridge, is located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, near the disused Sheffield Victoria railway station. Completed in 2002, its design solves a difficult problem: passing the riverside cycle- and footpath (the Five Weirs Walk) under the massive Wicker Arches viaduct while linking one bank of the River Don to the other. Without the Cobweb Bridge, the footpath would have had to make a one-mile detour. [1] [2] [3]

Designed by Sheffield City Council's Structures Section, the entire 330-foot (100 m) long bridge is suspended on a web of steel cables secured to the underside of the viaduct, hence the name. Completing the theme, large steel likenesses of spiders conceal the overhead lighting.

While the bridge has been prone to vandalism in the past (the wires forming the parapet having been stolen more than once), the bridge was repaired in 2015 to reduce the risk of future vandalism. [4] The newly restored bridge no longer uses wires in the parapet, having been replaced with metal plates with spiderweb designs.

See also

List of bridges in the United Kingdom

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yorkshire and the Humber</span> Region of England

Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000 with its largest settlements being Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Don, Yorkshire</span> River in South Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire, England

The River Don is a river in South Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It rises in the Pennines, west of Dunford Bridge, and flows for 69 miles (111 km) eastwards, through the Don Valley, via Penistone, Sheffield, Rotherham, Mexborough, Conisbrough, Doncaster and Stainforth. It originally joined the Trent, but was re-engineered by Cornelius Vermuyden as the Dutch River in the 1620s, and now joins the River Ouse at Goole. Don Valley is a UK parliamentary constituency near the Doncaster stretch of the river.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tinsley Viaduct</span> Bridge in Tinsley/Wincobank

Tinsley Viaduct is a two-tier road bridge in Sheffield, England; it was the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. It carries the M1 and the A631 for a distance of 3,389 feet (1,033 m) over the Don Valley, from Tinsley to Wincobank, also crossing the Sheffield Canal, the Midland Main Line and the former South Yorkshire Railway line from Tinsley Junction to Rotherham Central. The Supertram route to Meadowhall runs below part of the viaduct on the trackbed of the South Yorkshire Railway line to Barnsley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porter Brook</span> River in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

The Porter Brook is a river which flows through the City of Sheffield, England, descending over 1,000 feet (300 m) from its source on Burbage Moor to the west of the city to its mouth where it joins the River Sheaf in a culvert beneath Sheffield railway station. Like the other rivers in Sheffield, its steep gradient made it ideal for powering water mills and works associated with the metalworking and cutlery industries, and around 20 dams were constructed over the centuries to facilitate this. At its lower end, it is extensively culverted, but parts of it are gradually being restored to open channels, as part of a daylighting scheme for the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridges of York</span> Bridges over the Ouse and Foss in York, England

There are nine bridges across the River Ouse and sixteen smaller bridges and passages across the narrower River Foss within the city of York, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nottingham station</span> Transport interchange serving the city of Nottingham, England

Nottingham station, briefly known as Nottingham City and for rather longer as Nottingham Midland, is a railway station and tram stop in the city of Nottingham. It is the principal railway station of Nottingham. It is also a nodal point on the city's tram system, with a tram stop that was originally called Station Street but is now known as Nottingham Station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wicker Arches</span> Railway viaduct in South Yorkshire, England

Wicker Arches form a 660-yard (600 m) long railway viaduct across the Don Valley in the City of Sheffield, England. They take their name from the thoroughfare Wicker, which passes through the main arch of the viaduct and was, until the completion of the Sheffield Parkway, the main route eastwards from the city to the M1. It is a Grade II* listed structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver Jubilee Bridge</span> Bridge in northwest England

The Silver Jubilee Bridge crosses the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn Gap between Runcorn and Widnes in Halton, England. It is a through arch bridge with a main arch span of 361 yards. It was opened in 1961 as a replacement for the Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge. In 1975–77 the carriageway was widened, after which the bridge was given its official name in honour of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. It carries the A533 road and a cantilevered footway. The bridge is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The bridge was closed to vehicles for refurbishment upon the opening of the new Mersey Gateway Bridge, but reopened as a toll bridge in February 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erskine Bridge</span> Bridge over the River Clyde, Scotland

The Erskine Bridge is a multi span cable-stayed box girder bridge spanning the River Clyde in west central Scotland. The bridge connects West Dunbartonshire with Renfrewshire and can be used by all types of motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. As well as crossing the Clyde, the bridge also crosses the Forth and Clyde Canal and the North Clyde railway line. A small part of Kilpatrick railway station is situated underneath the bridge at the north side. The bridge is part of the A898 road. On completion the bridge replaced the Erskine to Old Kilpatrick ferry service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barmouth Bridge</span> Railway bridge across the Mawddach estuary

Barmouth Bridge, or Barmouth Viaduct is a Grade II* listed single-track wooden railway viaduct across the estuary of the Afon Mawddach near Barmouth, Wales. It is 820 metres (900 yd) long and carries the Cambrian Line. It is the longest timber viaduct in Wales and one of the oldest in regular use in Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Severn Bridge</span> Bridge over the rivers Severn and Wye in England and Wales

The Severn Bridge is a motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn road crossing between England and Wales, and took three and a half years to build, at a cost of £8 million. It replaced the 137-year-old Aust Ferry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snake Pass</span> Hill pass in the Derbyshire section of the Peak District

Snake Pass is a hill pass in the Derbyshire section of the Peak District, crossing the Pennines between Glossop and the Ladybower Reservoir at Ashopton. The road was engineered by Thomas Telford and opened in 1821. The pass carries the A57 road between Manchester and Sheffield, but it is no longer the main signposted route between those two cities, with traffic instead directed through the Woodhead Pass to the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medway Viaducts</span> Bridge in Cuxton, England

The Medway Viaducts are three bridges or viaducts that cross the River Medway between Cuxton and Borstal in north Kent, England. The two road bridges carry the M2 motorway carriageways. The other viaduct carries the High Speed 1 railway line. All three bridges pass over the Medway Valley Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennerley Viaduct</span> Railway viaduct spanning the Erewash Valley

Bennerley Viaduct, is a former railway bridge, now a foot and cycle bridge, between Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and Awsworth, Nottinghamshire, in central England. It was completed in 1877 and carried the Great Northern Railway's (GNR) Derbyshire Extension over the River Erewash, which forms the county boundary, and its wide, flat valley. The engineer was Samuel Abbott, who worked under Richard Johnson, the GNR's chief engineer. The site required a bespoke design as the ground would not support a traditional masonry viaduct due to extensive coal mining. The viaduct consists of 16 spans of wrought iron, lattice truss girders, carried on 15 wrought iron piers which are not fixed to the ground but are supported by brick and ashlar bases. The viaduct is 60 feet high, 26 feet wide between the parapets, and over a quarter of a mile long. It was once part of a chain of bridges and embankments carrying the railway for around two miles across the valley but most of its supporting structures were demolished when the line closed in 1968. The only similar surviving bridge in the United Kingdom is Meldon Viaduct in Devon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A4232 road</span> Road in Cardiff, Wales

The A4232, which is also known either as the Peripheral Distributor Road (PDR) (Welsh: Ffordd Ddosbarthu Ymylol) or the Cardiff Link Road (Welsh: Ffordd Gyswllt Caerdydd), is a distributor road in Cardiff, the capital of Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Don Navigation</span> Waterway navigation in South Yorkshire, England

The River Don Navigation was the result of early efforts to make the River Don in South Yorkshire, England, navigable between Fishlake and Sheffield. The Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden had re-routed the mouth of the river in 1626, to improve drainage, and the new works included provision for navigation, but the scheme did not solve the problem of flooding, and the Dutch River was cut in 1635 to link the new channel to Goole. The first Act of Parliament to improve navigation on the river was obtained in 1726, by a group of Cutlers based in Sheffield; the Corporation of Doncaster obtained an Act in the following year for improvements to the lower river. Locks and lock cuts were built and by 1751 the river was navigable to Tinsley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Braunstone Gate Bridge</span> Bridge in Braunstone Gate

The Braunstone Gate Bridge was a former railway bridge carrying the Great Central Railway, and later a public footpath and cycleway, over Western Boulevard and the River Soar in Leicester, England. The bridge had been in a poor state of repair following years of neglect by the local council and it was demolished to facilitate developments for De Montfort University. The Council claimed that the costs of restoration were prohibitive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tees Viaduct</span> Viaduct over the River Tees in Northern England

The A19 Tees Viaduct or Tees Flyover is a high level six-lane dual carriageway road bridge in the North East of England carrying the main A19 trunk road north–south across the River Tees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monmouth Viaduct</span> Bridge in Monmouth, Wales

The Monmouth Viaduct or Chippenham Meadow Viaduct is a 20-arch 183m red sandstone viaduct, with two 23m steel lattice-girder spans over the river. It carried the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway line across the River Wye at Monmouth, Wales. A further river crossing by the Ross and Monmouth Railway was later built nearby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corby Bridge</span> Bridge in Cumbria, England

Corby Bridge is a railway viaduct adjacent to and immediately east of Wetheral railway station at Wetheral, near Carlisle, in north-western England, begun in 1830 and completed in 1834. It is 920 feet (280 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) high, and has been a grade I listed building since 1 April 1957.

References

  1. "Cobweb Bridge, Sheffield UK". cintec.co.uk. Archived from the original on 13 June 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  2. "Completed Cobweb Bridge showing the spider covered lights". europeana.eu. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  3. "Cobweb bridge makes website". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  4. "Sheffield City Council - Cycle Schemes". Sheffield City Council. Archived from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.

Coordinates: 53°23′16.7″N1°27′36.1″W / 53.387972°N 1.460028°W / 53.387972; -1.460028