The Trinity Bridge at Crowland in the Fens of eastern England is certainly unusual. I was in the village recently after having first visited about 40 years ago:



Built in the 14th century it crossed 2 confluent channels of the River Welland as a three-way bridge. Subsequent river straitening, canal digging and dyke draining works in the 17th and 18th centuries diverted the river meaning that the bridge no longer crosses any channel of water and so is now dry and essentially redundant. Being a mediaeval stone bridge, a pedestrian bridge, a three-way bridge and now a dry bridge makes it not only unusual but possibly unique.

Vizzer wrote:

The Trinity Bridge at Crowland in the Fens of eastern England is certainly unusual. I was in the village recently after having first visited about 40 years ago:



Built in the 14th century it crossed 2 confluent channels of the River Welland as a three-way bridge. Subsequent river straitening, canal digging and dyke draining works in the 17th and 18th centuries diverted the river meaning that the bridge no longer crosses any channel of water and so is now dry and essentially redundant. Being a mediaeval stone bridge, a pedestrian bridge, a three-way bridge and now a dry bridge makes it not only unusual but possibly unique.

Vizzer,

unusual mediëval bridges of Europe, some examples...

Ponte Vecchio
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ponte-Vecchio-Florence-Italy

Le pont d'Avignon

http://www.francethisway.com/places/avignon-bridge.php



Pont Valentré Cahors
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pont-valentre


Kind regards from Paul.

The tiny church at Bremilham near Malmesbury is the smallest in Britain.  An annual service is held on Rogation Sunday.

Bremilham

The Electric Brae in Ayrshire.

Due to an optical illusion, a cyclist or vehicle can appear to be free-wheeling uphill.

Electric Brae

In New Zealand we have the Bridge to Nowhere.  Not an unusual structure in itself but with no roads leading to it.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_to_Nowhere_(New_Zealand)
It is part of The Forgotten Highway, a road in Taranaki, that isn't really forgotten at all, just a little remote.  Quite a tourist attraction, really.  It has a town which calls itself a republic with its own mayor (once a dog), though it does not have an official mayor.  They are reserved for bigger areas.

 


Credit: Photo/bridge-nowhere, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage):'The ‘Bridge to Nowhere’', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/pe), updated 8-Oct-2014


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Caro wrote:

In New Zealand we have the Bridge to Nowhere. Not an unusual structure in itself but with no roads leading to it.

Another white elephant is the Golghar in Patna, India:



A giant granary designed by the East India Company engineer John Garstin in the 1780s. Its construction was prompted following the Bengal famine of the 1770s. It was, however, never filled to capacity and didn’t prevent further famines as had been intended.

I want to try and find a book about covered bridges in USA/Canada though it seems the oldest such bridge is the Kapelbrucke in Switzerland.  The bridges in the USA from what I can glean seem to be hangovers or restorations from the days of settlers.  The bridges were covered in to protect them from the elements.  One such bridge (not in the video featured in the film 'The Bridges of Madison County' but was destroyed later by arsonists.  The bridge was replaced and the new bridge was burnt by arsonists. What a pity.  My knowledge of engineering is insufficient to know the difference between a covered bridge and a roofed bridge. 

We have been watching a programme called Abandoned Engineering, and find it quite interesting, though a bit repetitive. It's amazing how many abandoned buildings there are in the world and not just in out-of-way places like the Middle East. We have seen buildings in Wales and places in other parts of Britain. Often used originally as protections against war or attack. But there are schools, churches etc.

That sounds like an interesting programme, Caro.

GG, sorry to show my ignorance but what is that bridge in your picture inserted on 2nd July?

LadyinRetirement wrote:

That sounds like an interesting programme, Caro.

GG, sorry to show my ignorance but what is that bridge in your picture inserted on 2nd July?

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Oh well. you see, there's a legend about that. Sometime around the IIth Century, the Devil visited Wales as he had never been there before and he had heard that the scenery was breathtaking. He soon came across an old lady who seemed upset. “What’s the matter?” he asked out of curiosity.
“Oh, I’m in such a terrible muddle and I don’t know what to do!. My cow has wandered across the river and I can’t get her back”.
‘Ah!” said the Devil ‘What you need my dear, is a bridge, and I am just the man to build you one. Why don’t you go home, and in the morning there will be a bridge waiting for you. All I ask in return is to keep the first living thing to cross the bridge!”
“Okay then” she said “It’s a bargain. I’ll see you in the morning. Nos da, Goodnight”
That night she wondered about this stranger who would build her a bridge. ‘What a strange request! Why should I cross the bridge to get my cow back if he gets to keep me in exchange? Mind you it is very tempting offer”
The next day she got up and called for her faithful dog. Together they went down to the river. “Well well” she couldn’t believe her eyes. In front of her was the best bridge that she had ever seen! I told you that I would build you a bridge” said the Devil appearing from nowhere.
“Now it’s your turn to keep your side of the bargain”.
I know, you get to keep the first living thing to cross the bridge” and she started to walk towards the bridge. But just when she got to the entrance, she stopped, took out a loaf of bread from her apron pocket and hurled it across the bridge. As quick as a flash and before the Devil could stop it, the dog chased after it. ‘Aaaaaaagh!!!!!” screeched the Devil. “You stupid old woman, I don’t believe it! Your smelly, hairy farm dog has become the first living thing to cross my bridge. It’s no good to me” he screamed and then he vanished.
Well, the Devil was never seen in Wales again as he was so embarrassed at being outwitted by the old lady. High in the mountains near Aberystwyth, there is a village where a very old bridge crosses a deep gorge. Above it are two other bridges built at later dates. But the lowest one….Well, they say that the Devil himself built it!

It's near the terminus of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, which runs from Aberystwyth.

You'd think Old Nick would be wise to that trick as it's been used on him many times. For example the Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge) across the Schöllenen Gorge in Switzerland has exactly the same Devil/loaf/dog story. This stone bridge, actually built in 1595, was constructed to replace a rickety wooden medieval bridge which for centuries had been the only way to access the vital St Gotthard Pass through the Alps. By the early 19th century the stone bridge, despite its supposed diabolical builder, was falling into disrepair and so in the 1830s a second bridge was built alongside. Now bypassed, the first stone bridge, the Teufelsbrücke, was abandoned and eventually collapsed in 1888. Finally a modern road bridge was constructed in 1958, although this too has now been rendered largely redundant by the completion of the Gotthard Road Tunnel in 1980.

 
The first and second bridges circa 1833 (left) and the second and third bridges today (right).

Rather less scenic but no less interesting is the triple crossing near Hanwell in west London designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. At the bottom is the track-bed of the old Great Western and Brentford Railway over which the Grand Junction Canal crosses in the pale blue trough (with its towpath jutting out to the side) and both these are crossed by a road bridge at surface level.

Thank you for the enlightenment.  We went to North Wales a few times on holiday in my childhood (my mother was from those parts) so I should have known about the D-----'s Bridge.

BTW is the triple crossing in the bottom picture in the comment above the 'three bridges' mentioned on a map at about 3:39 on this short video?  Though someone mentions in the comments that there are actually only two bridges albeit there are three levels.

Edited to say that apparently there are the remains of a third bridge, a footbridge, but it isn't a complete bridge any longer.

Thanks for that LiR - yes it's the same 'Three Bridges'. Another restriction imposed on Brunel was that the railway should not be visible from nearby Osterley Park, the grand stately home of George Villiers, Earl of Jersey, who was a powerful and wealthy politician. The level of the canal could obviously not be greatly changed as it had to link into the Thames and the railway, because it had to be hidden, could not simply pass over the canal by an embankment and bridge. This was why at 'Three Bridges' Brunel had to adopt the more expensive solution of running the railway in a cutting and passing under the canal.

There's a story that the railway tunnel under Shrugborough Park in Staffordshire was constructed because the lord who lived in the stately home at the time the railway line was built didn't want his grounds to have the railway running through them.

Just as an aside ... that youtube "Brunel's Last Hurrah" describes how the GW & B railway line opened on 15 July 1859, shortly before Brunel died on 15 September 1859 (aged just 53). George Villiers, the 5th Earl of Jersey, whose restrictions on the railway's route had presented Brunel with such engineering challenges, followed Brunel to the grave three weeks later on 3 October 1859 (aged 86) and both his title and the troublesome estate of Osterley Park passed to his son, George Child-Villiers (the 6th Earl). However just three weeks after gaining his inheritance the 6th Earl was also struck down, dying on 24 October 1859 (aged just 51). The estate duly passed to the 7th Earl, Victor Albert George Child-Villiers, but as he was then only fourteen years old and away at Eton the Villiers family caused no more trouble for the GW & BR.

Of course the Ansons near neighbour at Tixall had set a precedent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tixall_Wide

I was sure I had seen the name Villiers in some of my Georgette Heyer books (my comfort reads, and some I have read zillions of times) and there it is. I see that she (Lady Jersey) outlived 6 out of 7 of her children as well as her husband. So that must have been the younger George.

The Villiers family crop up several times in British history and not always in a favourable light. George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592–1628) rose to fame and influence as the favourite (friend/confidant/lover) of King James I of England, while Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland (1640–1709) was a mistress of King Charles II, by whom he had five illegitimate children.

The current head of the family, George Francis William Child-Villiers, the 10th Earl of Jersey (born 1976), is apparently a former film producer, actor and writer ... and of course simply by inheritance also a member of the UK's Parliamentary Upper House, the House of Lords. However having searched the government's own www.parliament.uk website I can't find any occasion at which he's ever spoken, nor even in fact attended.

But I think we are now, et mea culpa, veering well away from the intention of the original post, no?

Well he certainly won't be turning up nowadays. He took his seat in August 1998 only to be excluded along with most others (650 of them) under the House of Lords Act in 1999.

D'oh, of course ... and that would account for why I couldn't find him anywhere on the HoL website.

But returning to bridges ... I suppose it's almost inevitable that, like buses, they tend to come in groups, as the best place to cross usually remains the same despite changes in technology. For example just twenty minutes from me are the three bridges at Cérèt crossing the river Tech.



Furthest away is the railway bridge built in the late 19th century but now part of a long distance cycle/walking route, while in the middle is the current road bridge which was built in the 1960s to replace the medieval stone bridge in the foreground which had carried all the road traffic for centuries and is still perfectly strong enough to do so today, except that it's only one cart wide. The medieval bridge, still in use as a footbridge, is another Pont du Diable, with much the same satanic legend as all the others except that here it was a cat that was encouraged to cross first. Legends aside, at 45.5m wide when completed in 1341 it was the world's largest masonry arch until the Castelvecchio Bridge in Verona (Italy) was built in 1356.