Holt Fleet Bridge, also known as Holt Bridge, is a

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 ...

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct ...

over the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, at Holt in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

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 b ...

. It has a span of ; it was designed by

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 ...

and opened in 1828. It is Grade II listed, and is similar to Telford's

Galton Bridge The Galton Bridge is a cast-iron bridge in Smethwick, near Birmingham, in central England. Opened in 1829 as a road bridge, the structure has been pedestrianised since the 1970s. It was built by Thomas Telford to carry a road across the new mai ...

, which is a Grade I listed structure that spans his BCN New Main Line canal at Smethwick. The bridge was built with five cast-iron ribs, with X-braced

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s, as were several of Telford's bridges. It was strengthened in 1928.Thomas Telford's Bridges Over the River Severn
/ref> when the upper and lower parts of each rib and some of the diagonal struts above them were encased in concrete. The road deck was rebuilt in reinforced concrete and widened at the same time. Semicircular arches at each end, built in red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, allow for the passage of riverbank foot-traffic and floodwater.

References

External links

photos of Holt Fleet Bridge and surrounding area on geograph
* *
The Holt Fleet - a historic restaurant adjacent to the Holt Fleet Bridge
{{coord, 52.26757, -2.26079, type:landmark_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SO823633), display=title Bridges across the River Severn Bridges in Worcestershire Bridges completed in 1828 Grade II listed buildings in Worcestershire Bridges by Thomas Telford

See also

References

External links