Waterloo Bridge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Coordinates | 53°05′07″N3°47′43″W / 53.0852°N 3.7953°W Coordinates: 53°05′07″N3°47′43″W / 53.0852°N 3.7953°W |
| Carries | Motor vehicles (2 lanes) Pedestrians |
| Crosses | River Conwy |
| Locale | Betws-y-Coed |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Arch bridge |
| Material | Cast iron |
| Longest span | 32 metres (105 ft) [1] |
| No. of spans | 1 |
| History | |
| Designer | Thomas Telford |
| Construction end | 1815 |
Waterloo Bridge (Welsh : Pont Waterloo) is an early cast iron bridge, spanning the River Conwy at Betws-y-Coed, in Conwy county borough, north-west Wales.
Welsh is a Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa. Historically, it has also been known in English as 'British', 'Cambrian', 'Cambric' and 'Cymric'.
Cast iron is a group of iron-carbon alloys with a carbon content greater than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its colour when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impurities which allow cracks to pass straight through, grey cast iron has graphite flakes which deflect a passing crack and initiate countless new cracks as the material breaks, and ductile cast iron has spherical graphite "nodules" which stop the crack from further progressing.
The River Conwy is a river in north Wales. From its source to its discharge in Conwy Bay it is a little over 27 miles (43 km) long. "Conwy" was formerly Anglicised as "Conway."
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The bridge is located about half a mile south-east of the village. It was built by the civil engineer Thomas Telford. An inscription on the arch records that it was constructed in the year of the Battle of Waterloo, but although designed and constructed in 1815, its erection was not completed until the following year. [2] It was raised as part of building the road from London to Holyhead (now the A5). The bridge is made wholly from cast iron (apart from the stone bastions) and was only the seventh such bridge to be built.
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and road, bridge and canal builder. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well as harbours and tunnels. Such was his reputation as a prolific designer of highways and related bridges, he was dubbed The Colossus of Roads, and, reflecting his command of all types of civil engineering in the early 19th century, he was elected as the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a post he held for 14 years until his death.
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in Belgium, part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands at the time. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: an army consisting of units from Britain, Ireland, the German Legion, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau, under the command of the Duke of Wellington, referred to by many authors as the Anglo-allied army, and a Prussian army under the command of Field Marshal Blücher. The battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
The A5 London Holyhead Trunk Road is a major road in England and Wales. It runs for about 252 miles (406 km) from London to the Irish Sea at the ferry port of Holyhead which handles more than 2 million passengers each year. In many parts the route follows that of the Roman Iter II route which later took the Anglo-Saxon name Watling Street.
In 1923, the bridge’s masonry abutments were refurbished, and its superstructure was strengthened by encasing the inner three ribs in concrete. A 178mm reinforced cantilevered concrete deck was also added, which provided extra space for new footways; the cast iron parapet railings were re-erected on the outside of the new footways. [3]
In 1978, a new 254mm reinforced concrete deck was added and the masonry abutments were also strengthened. [4]
In May 1996, the bridge was Grade I listed as "a highly important and imaginatively-designed iron road bridge by Thomas Telford, engineer, a significant example of early iron technology". [2]
A listed building, or listed structure, is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, Cadw in Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in Northern Ireland.
