There are nine bridges across the River Ouse within the city of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, England, and sixteen smaller bridges and passages across the narrower

River Foss The River Foss is in North Yorkshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Ouse. It rises in the Foss Crooks Woods near Oulston Reservoir close to the village of Yearsley and runs south through the Vale of York to the Ouse in the centre of ...

Bridges over the Ouse

The earliest bridge, built by the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, linked Stonegate (the ''via praetoria'' of the Roman fortress) and

Micklegate Micklegate is a street in the City of York, England. The name means "Great Street", "gate" coming from the Old Norse ''gata'', or street. Micklegate is described by York City Council as "one of the most handsome streets in Yorkshire", and was ...

, and crossed the river approximately where the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in some ...

now is. Its replacement, Ouse Bridge, was a wooden bridge built about downstream by the Vikings. It has been rebuilt three times, most recently between 1810 and 1820. The Scarborough Railway Bridge of 1845 was the second bridge to be built, and it was followed by two more road bridges, Lendal Bridge in 1863 and Skeldergate Bridge in 1882. The Millennium Bridge, a footbridge, was added in 2001. There are also Clifton Bridge in the northern suburbs of the city, two modern fly-overs carrying the outer

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

, and the former railway bridge at

Naburn Naburn is a small village and civil parish in the unitary authority of the City of York in North Yorkshire, England. It lies on the eastern side of the River Ouse about south of York. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population o ...

, which is now part of the York-Selby

cycle path A bike path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "Class III bikewa ...

. North to south, the bridges are: * The

A1237 road The A1237 road is a road that runs to the west and north of the city of York, England. It forms part of the York Outer Ring Road as either end of the route forms junctions with the A64 to the south-west and east of the city to act as a city ...

( York Outer Ring Road Western and Northern) (1987) *

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People * Clifton (surname) * Clifton (given name) Places Australia *Clifton, Queensland, a town ** Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong * Clifton, Western Australia Canada * Clifton, Nova Sc ...

Bridge (1963) * Scarborough Railway Bridge (1844) * Lendal Bridge (1863) * Ouse Bridge (1821) * Skeldergate Bridge (1881) * Millennium Bridge (2001) * The A64 Outer Ring Road Southern and Eastern (1976) *

railway bridge (now a cycle and pedestrian path) (1871)

Clifton Bridge (1963)

A temporary bridge over the River Ouse at

was built by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

in 1961 on the site of an old ferry crossing to handle additional vehicle traffic caused by the wedding of the

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are r ...

and

Duchess of Kent Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom ...

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

. A permanent bridge was opened officially on 28 October 1963. The bridge is built from 4,000 tons of concrete and 50 tons of reinforced steel.

Scarborough Railway Bridge (1845)

The second bridge across the Ouse was the Scarborough Railway Bridge, built in 1845 to carry the railway line between York and Scarborough (now the Scarborough branch of the

North TransPennine TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major c ...

route). Originally it had two tracks with a pedestrian path in between them. In 1875, the track was raised 4 feet (1.2 m) and the footpath moved to the south side. This bridge had a £6 million renovation in 2015 with the main decks being completely replaced. The narrow footpath, with steps on either side was removed in 2019 and replaced with a much wider bridge suitable for pedestrians and cyclists. It has created a car-free route between the railway station and the city centre and users of

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...

route 65 no longer have to carry their bikes across the bridge. The bridge reopened to the public on 18 April 2019 with work continuing on steps and sections of ramps.

Lendal Bridge (1863)

Lendal Bridge stands on the site of a former rope-ferry where the city walls break for the River Ouse. This was the ferry used by

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War ...

when she visited York ''en route'' to Castle Howard in 1852. The bridge connects two medieval towers:

Lendal Tower Lendal Tower is a medieval tower that formed part of the city defences of York, England. It is located on the east bank of the River Ouse at the point where the river enters the walled city from the north-west. The building was used as a wat ...

on the east bank and Barker Tower on the west bank. It was designed by civil engineer Thomas Page, who also designed London's

Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats in the ...

. It is made of cast iron, and has a single span of . Page's bridge was the second attempt to build a bridge on the site. The first, begun in 1860 by William Dredge, collapsed during construction, and five workmen were killed. Parts of the structure were later taken to Scarborough and used in the Valley Bridge there. In 1861, permission was obtained from Parliament for a new bridge to be built, and the Corporation of York requested Thomas Page to design a replacement. His

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

bridge opened in 1863. Together with the attached tollhouses it is a

Grade II listed 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 ...

building. In August 1892, champion diver Tommy Burns dived off the bridge, watched by several hundred spectators and afterwards "gave an exhibition of ornamental swimming". Lendal Bridge links Station Road with

Museum Street Museum Street is a street in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, England. To the north is the British Museum, hence its current name. The street is populated by cafes and bookshops to appeal to the international museum-goin ...

and thus

York railway station York railway station is on the East Coast Main Line serving the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. It is north of and on the main line it is situated between to the south and to the north. , the station is operated by London North Ea ...

with

, and is part of York's Inner Ring Road. Lendal Bridge was used in ''

Damon and Debbie ''Damon and Debbie'' is a three-part spin-off from the Channel 4 soap opera '' Brookside'' first broadcast in November 1987. A Mersey Television production, it was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, directed by Bob Carlton, and produced by Colin M ...

'', a 1987 spin-off of soap ''

Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Br ...

'' for the scenes where long-running character

Damon Grant Damon Grant is a fictional character in the defunct British soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The ...

was murdered. The

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

series '

Gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). T ...

' (2017) used Lendal Bridge as a location. Motor traffic (except for buses) was restricted daily from 10.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. on Lendal Bridge during a six-month trial period from August 2013 to February 2014. The trial objectives were to establish whether a permanent restriction would reduce congestion in York city centre, improve the environment and improve the reliability of certain bus routes. The traffic ban was enforced with ANPR cameras. Air quality and bus route reliability increased during the trial but the public and business opinions on the trial were mixed and enforcement ruled invalid on a signage technicality so the bridge was re-opened to motor traffic after the trial.

Ouse Bridge (1821)

The original Roman bridge over the Ouse was eventually replaced by a wooden bridge built further downstream by the

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

. In 1154, it collapsed under the weight of a crowd which had gathered to greet St William of York on his return from exile. It was replaced by a stone bridge. In 1367 the first public toilets in Yorkshire, and likely England, were opened on the bridge. Part of the bridge was swept away by floods in the winter of 1564–5. The repaired bridge of 1565 had a new central arch spanning 81 ft, and was described by Defoe as "...near 70 foot 1 min diameter; it is, without exception, the greatest in England, some say it's as large as the

Rialto The Rialto is a central area of Venice, Italy, in the ''sestiere'' of San Polo. It is, and has been for many centuries, the financial and commercial heart of the city. Rialto is known for its prominent markets as well as for the monumental Ria ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, though I think not." This bridge was dismantled between 1810 and 1818 to make way for the New Ouse Bridge, designed by Peter Atkinson the younger, completed in 1821. It is a

building.

Skeldergate Bridge (1881)

Skeldergate Bridge links the

York Castle York Castle is a fortified complex in the city of York, England. It consists of a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings, which were built over the last nine centuries on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruined ...

area to Bishophill. In 1875 Parliament passed the York (Skeldergate Bridge) Improvement Act, after the city had determined that over 800 people were using the Skeldergate ferry crossing daily. It was designed in a

style by civil engineer George Gordon Page, and built between 1878 and 1881. The small arch at the east end had an opening portion, powered by machinery in the Motor House, which also served as a toll house and accommodation for the toll keeper and his family. The bridge opened to admit tall masted ships to the

quay A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( mooring locatio ...

s on either side of the river between Skeldergate and Ouse Bridges. The bridge was last opened in 1975, and the machinery has since been removed. Skeldergate Bridge was formally declared free of tolls on 1 April 1914. Together with the attached tollhouse, now a cafe, it is a Grade II listed building.

Millennium Bridge (2001)

The Millennium Bridge, built to a competition-winning design by Whitby Bird and Partners, was opened on 10 April 2001, having cost £4.2 million to build. It spans the River Ouse to the south of

, linking Hospital Fields Road and Maple Grove in Fulford with Butcher Terrace on the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...

. The bridge carries a

and a footpath, and is not open to vehicular traffic. It is a key link in the

Sustrans Sustrans is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United K ...

National Cycle Routes 65/ 66 and is part of the orbital route for York completed in 2011. The bridge shortened the walk or cycle for students from houses in the South Bank to the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for post-nominals) is a collegiate research university, located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, co ...

(they previously had to travel via Skeldergate Bridge). The bridge also acts a meeting place for local people, as it has a waist height shelf spanning the whole structure which facilitates sitting and admiring the view. Increasingly it is used as a circular walk from the city centre taking in the New Walk on the east bank and Terry Avenue and

Rowntree Park Rowntree Park is a park in York, England open to the public, featuring children's playgrounds, tennis courts, bowling greens, basketball court, skateboarding area and general areas for picnicking. The park also features a large lake, a canal an ...

on the west bank. While riverside paths regularly flood several times a year the bridge is higher and rarely cut off by floodwaters. Signs on approaches from Fulford Road /Hospital Fields Road junction and Butcher Terrace/

Bishopthorpe Road Bishopthorpe Road is a radial route in York, in England, connecting the city centre with the village of Bishopthorpe. It is locally known as Bishy Road. History The route may be Roman in origin, and in 1981, a cobbled surface was discovered, 2 ...

warn when it may be impassable without

wellies The Wellington boot was originally a type of leather boot adapted from Hessian boots, a style of military riding boot. They were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The "Wellington" boot became a staple of pr ...

. At night the bridge is illuminated by banks of lights in different colours, so that the colour of illumination changes every few seconds. Supplies for Fulford Barracks were brought in by river near this location, and the remains of a narrow gauge railway may be seen on the eastern bank of the river a few yards toward the city. There used to be a rope ferry at this location as well. There may have been a rope ferry at one time, but in the 20th century it was a sculled ferry (rowed by a single oar at the stern) right into the 1950s when the ferry boat became motorised. It was particularly used by the Terry's workers (with their bikes), who lived on the Fulford side of the Ouse. File:Millennium Bridge York.jpg, The Millennium Bridge from Fulford. File:Millenium Bridge Bottom.jpg, Below the bridge from Fulford. File:Millennium Bridge from Fulford.jpg, Millennium Bridge

Naburn Railway Bridge (1871)

Outside the outer ring-road, the

swing bridge, built in 1871, used to carry the York-Selby railway until it was diverted in 1983. The bridge now constitutes part of the York & Selby cycle path, connecting the Trans Pennine trail to York. It is also known as the "Fisherman Bridge" due to a large metal sculpture of a fisherman with bike and dog, sitting on top which was added in 2000 as part of the York Council "Creative Communities 2000" scheme.

Bridges over the Foss

From north to south, to the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

with the Ouse, these are: * The A1237 Outer Ring Road * Church Lane Bridge, Huntington * Link Road Bridge between

New Earswick New Earswick is a model village and civil parish in the unitary authority of City of York in North Yorkshire, England, near the River Foss, north of York and south of Haxby. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 2,812, redu ...

and Huntington * Huntington Road Bridge * Fossway Bridge * Pedestrian and

bridge, formerly part of the Foss Islands Branch Line of the North Eastern Railway () * Monk Bridge (1794 and later) * Foss Bank Bridge (1998), carrying south-eastbound Inner Ring Road * Layerthorpe Bridge (1998), carrying Northwestbound Inner Ring Road traffic and traffic between Peasholme Green and

Layerthorpe Layerthorpe is a village in the unitary authority area of the City of York, North Yorkshire, England. It is outside the city walls of York. The road through Layerthorpe from the bridge over the River Foss to Heworth is also shares the same na ...

* Pedestrian bridge from Foss Islands Road to what is now the Defra site at Peasholme Green (1931) * Hungate Bridge (2011)

and pedestrian bridge north of Rowntree Wharf linking Navigation Road with the Hungate area and Peasholme Green * Pedestrian bridge linking the Shambles car-park and Rowntree Wharf () * Foss Bridge (1811–12) * Piccadilly Bridge (1911–14) * Castle Mills Bridge (1956), part of York's Inner Ring Road * The Blue Bridge (1929–30) Many of these are unobtrusive modern bridges carrying main roads. The following are more notable:

Monk Bridge (1794)

Monk Bridge is a single-arched

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

bridge with a span of approximately . It carries traffic between central York and Heworth and was built in 1794 to designs by Peter Atkinson the elder. In 1924–6, the bridge was widened and the upper part rebuilt.

Pedestrian bridge from Foss Island Road to Defra site (1931)

This

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

pedestrian bridge from Foss Islands Road to what is now the Defra site at Peasholme Green was constructed in 1931 by the Monk Bridge Construction Company to improve communications between York's

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

and its

cooling tower A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat an ...

, both now demolished. It is locked and not in use.

Hungate Bridge (2011)

Opened in September 2011, Hungate bridge is a

cable-stayed A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern ...

cycle and foot bridge that links Navigation Road and Palmer Street. It has an span with a single supporting mast on the north bank. National Cycle Network Route 658 uses the bridge. It is also on the route of the

Way of the Roses The Way of the Roses is the newest of Great Britain's coast-to-coast, long-distance cycle routes and is based on minor roads, disused railway lines and specially constructed cycle paths. It lies entirely within the counties of Lancashire and Yo ...

coast to coast route and is part of York's network of traffic-free cycleways.

Foss Bridge (1812)

The Foss Bridge, a single Georgian

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 ...

arch with

baluster A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its c ...

s, links the streets

Fossgate Fossgate is a street in the city centre of York, in England. History The street is believed to follow the line of a Roman road leading south-east out of Eboracum. Although it lay outside the Roman walls, it is known that there was a civilian ...

and

Walmgate Walmgate is a street in the city centre of York, in England. During the Medieval period, the street was the site of a seafissh and cattle market. Walmgate Bar, was involved in the Siege of York in 1644, during the First English Civil War. Durin ...

. It is believed that the earliest bridge on this site was constructed during the Viking period. The present bridge, designed by Peter Atkinson the younger and erected in 1811–12, replaced a wooden bridge. The bridge was once the site of a

fish market A fish market is a marketplace for selling fish and fish products. It can be dedicated to wholesale trade between fishermen and fish merchants, or to the sale of seafood to individual consumers, or to both. Retail fish markets, a type of wet ma ...

. It is a

Grade II* listed 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 ...

building.

The Blue Bridge (1930)

The Blue Bridge crosses the River Foss just above its confluence with the River Ouse. The original bridge on the site was built in 1738, the current one being constructed in 1929–30. In the early 1730s a section of the eastern river bank of the Ouse was improved, at the expense of the city, to create an area lined with trees along which the citizens could promenade. It proved so popular that within a few years this New Walk was extended further south past the junction with the Foss by way of a wooden drawbridge. This new bridge was painted blue and the colour and name have endured though the bridge itself has been replaced several times, the first of these being in 1768 when a single-arch stone bridge was constructed. In 1792 the Foss Navigation Company built a wooden swing-bridge to enable boats to access the Foss and this type of bridge was used again when the bridge was rebuilt in 1834. In 1857–58 an iron opening-bridge was built along with two stone plinths upon which stood two Russian cannons. These had been captured at the Battle of Sebastopol in 1855 and became the Crimean

War Memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

in York and as such were retained when the current bridge was built in 1929–30 only to be removed in 1941 when they were scrapped and reused for the

war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative si ...

. In 2020, the bridge was to be temporarily removed for refurbishments, with a scaffold bridge taking its place.

References

* The Fairest Arch in England: Old Ouse Bridge, York, and its Buildings

Former toll bridges in England