The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-23 00:00:00

New Railway Bridge.

Whatever may be the shortcoming of the London,
Chatham, and Dover Railway, they are certainly
not those which arise from want of enterprise.
They have given their passengers the best and most
commodious stations ever seen, and they are about
to give the working classes the boon of shilling
weekly tickets over the whole extent of their metro-
politan line, and now, at their own expense, with
the exception of a contribution by the Brighton
Railway, they are about to more than double the
width of their bridge into Victoria Station, over the
Thames, the frequent stoppages on which now in-
' terfere so much with that serenity of mind and
urbanity of manner so characteristic of the British
travelling public. The value of this widening of
the bridge will consist in the improved access it
will afford to the Victoria Station, which is
now literally choked at certain periods of the
day. The widening of the Battersea-bridge has,
therefore, long been felt to be a matter of
urgent necessity. Over its two lines of rails and
along the narrow entrance into the Victoria Station,
reminding one of the very narrow neck of a very
wide bottle, there passes the whole of the west-end
traffic of the Brighton Railway, and its lines to the
Crystal Palace and Epsom ; the mainline traffic of
the London, Chatham, and Dover, and its metropo-
litan extension to Ludgate ; and the Great Western
trafficby way of Kensington. Upwards of 400 trains
and engines pass over the Battersea-bridge per day,
and it is quite usual to see two or three trains stand-
ing on the bridge at a time, waiting for the signal to
get into the Victoria Station. The works have been
in preparation on the east side of the present struc-
ture for some time past, and yesterday the founda-
tion-stone of the new bridge was laid by Lord Harris,
K. 5.1., the chairman of the company. This new
bridge, when united with the present bridge, will
form together the widest bridge in the world. Ac-
cording to the plans of Sir Charles Fox, who is the
engineer, the new structure has four river spans of
175 ft. clear each, and two land openings of 70ft.
each. The river openings are segmental in shape,
and the ribs of wrought iron have a rise or versed
sine of 17ft. The three piers in the river have each
at the level of springing of ribs a thickening of 12ft.
The two abutments are 20ft. thick each at that level,
so that the total length of the whole bridge is about
310 yards. The width of the bridge at the rails' level
will be 110 feet, wide enough for eight lines of rails,
some of mixed gauge. This width is carried by seven
main ribs to each span.
The mode of construction adopted for the two
abutments is to carry them down to a depth of over
15ft. below low-water mark, with the brickwork in
cement. Ordinary cofferdams are used in the con-
struction of these abutments, the piles for which are
all 45ft. long. The excavations for these abutments
are of great size, owing to the extraordinary width
of the bridge and form of the ribs. The excavation
has to be 125 ft. long and 48ft. wide.

The piers are supported by brickwork in cylin-
ders. These cylinders are four in number to each
pier, and are sunk to a depth of 45ift. below high-
water mark. Each is 21ft. in diameter, and made
of cast-iron, in lengths of Bft. ; each length com-
posed of eight segments. After being sunk to the
required depth, and the brickwork taken up to low-
water mark, those portions of the cylinders above
the bed of the river are removed, and arches turned
from one to the other of the circular pillars, so that
all are connected above low-water mark, and the
piers will thus form one continuous wall for its whole
length, and will be faced with Portland and York-
shire stone. The length of each pier at the level of
the cylinders will be 130 ft. It will be observed that
there will be 12 such cylinders in all for the entire
bridge. The general elevation will correspond ex-
actly with the present railway bridge ; but, as will
be seen from the above dimensions, the new bridge
will be no less than four times the width of the
present one.

The weight of iron in susuperstructure and cylinders,
&c., will be about 3,000
of stone will be used, 16,000 Cub 100,000 cubic feet
brick-
work, and some 250,000 to 300,0coyoards of
cubic feet of
timber. Each of the cylinders as it is completed will
be weighted with no less a load than 1,300 tons to
test the foundations, and to prevent any settlement
after the work is finished. At the low-water mark
cast-iron girders are fixed between these cylinders,
and similar ones are placed between the cylinderse,
and the existing pier. Arches of brickwork of vast
strength, every part set in cement, are turned
between the cylinders and between the old and new
work, and upon all these continuous piers of brick-
work and masonry are constructed, corresponding
in general appearance with the existing piers.
There are three of these massive piers, each of
which rests upon four cylinders. Thq ribs of each
span, seven in number, will be considerably deeper
than those of the present bridge, and will be cross-
braced to avoid the vibration now experienced
in crossing. The girders are at the same time made
continuous over the pier, and the section is consider-
ably larger. All the cross and rail girders are rolled
beams, which being in one piece give very great
strength in proportion to the small quantity of
metal.._ The parapet on the east side of the present
°ridge will be removed and re-erected on the new
one. The width the • •
of existing bridge is 33ft. 9in.
and the new portion 98ft. •
width9in., thus giving a total
of 132 ft. G. other Words, 521 in. between the parapets, or, in
the new westrati bin. greater width than that of
Victoria-bridge nsfter-bridge—thus making the
Thames, or, byindeed, over
the Widest bridge over the
At present there ver any river in the world.
are two lines of rails of mixed