Breydon Viaduct was a railway bridge across the

River Yare The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches it is one of the principal navigable waterways of The Broads and connects with the rest of the network. The river rises south of Dereham to the west to the v ...

near

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

that was built by the

Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR) was a railway network in England, in the area connecting southern Lincolnshire, the Isle of Ely and north Norfolk. It developed from several local independent concerns and was incorporated ...

(M&GN).

History

Breydon Viaduct was built to cross the

just downstream of

Breydon Water Breydon Water is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. It is a Local Nature Reserve, a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area. It is part of the Berney Marshes and Breydon Water nature reserve, whic ...

and hence connect Yarmouth Beach station to the

Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway The Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway (NSJR) was a British joint railway company. The NSJR was owned by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) and the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (MGNJ) and consisted of two distinct sections: a line betwee ...

line from Yarmouth South Town railway station. By doing so it gave passengers from the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...

a direct link to

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

. The Engineer-in-Chief of the work was Alexander Ross, the Chief Engineer of the Great Northern Railway. William E. Newman provided the mechanical and structural design and William Marriott acted as executive engineer. The bridge was long and consisted of five spans. The second span from the south rotated about its midpoint in the manner of a

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

to leave two passages for river traffic. This section sat on a cast iron pivot which used ball bearings which made the bridge so free running that it could be manually opened by just one person. Breydon Bridge - geograph

Work on the bridge began in 1899 and it was finished in 1903 at a total cost of £38,453. (equivalent to £ in ), It was the largest structure on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. The bridge was successfully weight tested on 8 July 1903 with a train of heavy engines and it was opened shortly after. The bridge was single track whilst the rest of the line was

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

and so

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

es were provided at each end. River traffic on the Yare had priority over trains that wished to use the bridge. The viaduct closed on 21 September 1953 prior to the rest of the MG&N line. The tracks over the bridge remained in place for several years afterwards before the bridge was finally demolished in 1962. At the time of its closure it was anticipated that major repairs would be required to keep it in service, although it was found to be in good condition when it was demolished. The closure left Yarmouth Beach station a terminus until it was closed in 1959. After its demolition the pilings remained in the river until the construction of Breydon Road Bridge in the late 1980s when they were removed. The new road bridge followed the alignment of the rail viaduct and was a

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of movea ...

which could open completely in 90 seconds; the rail bridge could take up to ten minutes to open in strong winds.

References

{{commons category, Breydon Viaduct Bridges completed in 1903 Buildings and structures demolished in 1962 Rail transport in Norfolk Railway viaducts in Norfolk Demolished bridges in England Railway bridges in Norfolk Great Yarmouth