The Grosvenor Bridge is a single-span stone

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

road bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...

crossing the River Dee at

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

, England. Located on the

A483 The A483, officially described as the Swansea to Manchester Trunk Road, although now ending in Chester, is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs from Swansea in Wales to Chester in England via Llandovery, Llandrindod Wells, Oswestry and W ...

Grosvenor Road (), it was designed by Thomas Harrison and opened by

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , house = , father = Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , mother = Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf , birth_date = , birth_place = Coburg, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Holy Roman Empire , death_date = , death ...

on 17 October 1832. The first traffic passed over it in November 1833. At the time of its construction, the bridge was the longest single-span stone arch bridge in the world, a title that it retained for 30 years. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, 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, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. Views upriver include

Chester Castle Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls. The castle stands on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining part ...

and Handbridge, the impressive mansions of

Curzon Park Curzon Park is an upmarket residential suburb of Chester, Cheshire in England. The area, which adjoins the southern banks of the Dee, was first laid out in the 19th century. It is situated next to the Grosvenor Bridge and is well known for havi ...

and the adjacent

Roodee Chester Racecourse, also known as the Roodee, is a racecourse located in Chester, England. The horse racing venue is officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the "oldest racecourse still in operation". Horse racing in Chester date ...

. Water levels of the tidal Dee vary significantly during the day.

History

Design

At the beginning of the 19th century, Chester only had one river crossing, a narrow

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

bridge at Handbridge, the

Old Dee Bridge The Old Dee Bridge in Chester, Cheshire, England, is the oldest bridge in the city. It crosses the River Dee carrying the road that leads from the bottom of Lower Bridge Street and the Bridgegate to Handbridge. A bridge on this site was first ...

. Heavily congested, it delayed movement through the town. Building a new bridge was prohibitively expensive until

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...

proposed a new road between

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

and the Irish

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and i ...

to facilitate trade between the two islands. The route would have bypassed Chester, greatly reducing the potential income from the lucrative Irish trade routes. A committee was appointed to consider plans for a new bridge to quicken movement across the city and encourage traders to continue to stop there. Chester was at the time a major shipbuilding city, and a very tall bridge was required to allow ships to pass underneath. A design by the architect Thomas Harrison featuring an arch high and wide was chosen. When constructed, it would be the largest arch in the world, described by chief builder

James Trubshaw James Trubshaw (13 February 1777 – 28 October 1853) was an English builder, architect and civil engineer. The arch is of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

from

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

, the rest the bridge

gritstone Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for ...

. Its span remains the longest masonry arch in Britain.

Construction

Original plans called for a bridge between Chester Castle and

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

Road. However, Harrison was concerned soft ground there would not support heavy piers. Telford found a drier area downstream and construction was moved there, requiring Wrexham Road to be deadended in one direction, the other leading to the bridge. The first stone was laid by the Marquess of Westminster on 1 October 1827. The unfinished bridge was formally opened by

and her daughter,

Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

(later Queen Victoria), who were driven through a

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, cr ...

staged on its roadway to a

21-gun salute A 21-gun salute is the most commonly recognized of the customary gun salutes that are performed by the firing of cannons or artillery as a military honor. As naval customs evolved, 21 guns came to be fired for heads of state, or in exception ...

on 17 October 1832. Construction was finally completed in November 1833, and a toll imposed to pay the £50,000 () construction costs, a large sum at the time. The toll proved harmful to trade and was abolished in 1885 when maintenance was transferred to the Chester Corporation. Harrison died two years into construction; his pupil William Cole completed the job.

Photographs

Image:The_Grosvenor_Bridge_(13422338753).jpg, Early morning shot of the Grosvenor bridge over the River Dee Image:Grosvenor_Bridge_Chester4.JPG, The Grosvenor Bridge, viewed from the

Image:Grosvenor_Bridge,_Chester_near_to_Handbridge,_Cheshire,_Great_Britain.jpg, After snowfall Image:Grosvenor_Bridge_from_the_river_bank_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1116710.jpg, Winter view Image:GrosvenorBridgeChesterXmas2017a.jpg, From the North bank of the River Dee in Winter Image:GrosvenorBridgeChesterXmas2017b.jpg, From the South bank of the River Dee in Winter Image:GrosvenorBridgeChesterXmas2017c.jpg, From Overleigh Cemetery in Winter File:Grosvenor_Bridge,_Chester_-_view_of_east_side_from_south_bank_of_River_Dee_north_of_River_Lane.jpg, Summer view Image:Grosvenor_Bridge_Chester.JPG, In the evening Image:Grosvenor_Bridge_1.JPG, View from the south bank of the Dee, next to Overleigh cemetery Image:Curzon_Park_Chester.JPG, View of

looking down-river from the bridge, showing the width of the Dee at this point. Photo taken in spring at high tide. Image:Curzon Park Chester3.JPG, Same view in summer at low tide, looking down-river towards Curzon Park. The reduced water level is clearly visible. Image:Curzon_Park_Chester5.JPG, Same view in winter, after snowfall Image:Grosvenor_Bridge_on_New_Year's_Eve_2008_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1099945.jpg, On New Year's Eve Image:Red_Boat_on_the_River_Dee_-_geograph.org.uk_-_497858.jpg, From the south bank Image:Grosvenor_Bridge_Chester.jpg, Copper-plate engraving of the bridge soon after completion, showing the view up-river towards Handbridge Image:Grosvenor_Bridge_Chester2.jpg, Early 19th-century print of the bridge looking Northwards into the city Image:Grosvenor_Bridge_Chester_Inscription.JPG, Commemorative inscription on the bridge, providing details of its construction

References

External links

Scalable satellite view of the Grosvenor Bridge from Google Maps
{{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place = River Dee , bridge = Grosvenor Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream =

, upstream signs = , downstream = Dee Rail Bridge , downstream signs = Arch bridges in the United Kingdom Grade I listed bridges Bridges in Cheshire

Grosvenor Bridge Grosvenor Bridge, originally known as, and alternatively called Victoria Railway Bridge, is a railway bridge over the River Thames in London, between Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge. Originally constructed in 1860, and widened in 1865 and 1 ...