Present Structure
On 17 July 1866 the Cookham Bridge Company announced that a new iron bridge would be built and requested designs. 37 schemes were submitted and the contract was awarded to Messrs Pease, Hutchinson & Co Ltd of the Skerne Ironworks, Darlington for a bridge of two wrought iron girders supported by eight pairs of concrete-filled iron pillars. The estimated cost was £2,520 (equivalent to £171,340), some £1000 cheaper even than the estimate for the 1840 wooden construction. The remarkably low cost, due to Pease & Hutchinson being major iron manufacturers and prolific bridge builders, led to the new bridge being known as "the cheapest bridge on the River for its size".
Work on the replacement bridge began on 30 November 1866. The old bridge was demolished on 6 May 1867 and the approaches rerouted ready for the new bridge opening on 1 July 1867. The bridge continued to be owned by the Cookham Bridge Company and operated as a toll-bridge until 1947 when it was bought out by Berkshire County Council for £30,000 (£871,388) and the tolls abolished.
Read more about this topic: Cookham Bridge
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or structure:
“However fiercely opposed one may be to the present order, an old respect for the idea of order itself often prevents people from distinguishing between order and those who stand for order, and leads them in practise to respect individuals under the pretext of respecting order itself.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“... the structure of a page of good prose is, analyzed logically, not something frozen but the vibrating of a bridge, which changes with every step one takes on it.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)