The Gasworks Bridge, also known as the Old Gasworks Bridge, is an iron bridge across the River Thames at Oxford in England. It is a pedestrian bridge linking St Ebbes to the Grandpont nature reserve. It crosses the river on the reach between Iffley Lock and Osney Lock.
The bridge was constructed by the Oxford Gaslight and Coke Company in 1882 for a short railway branch line to carry coal to the gas works from the main Cherwell Valley Line at a junction just south of Osney Rail Bridge. The bridge was built by assembling sections on the south bank of the river and floating them into position. The gas works was demolished in 1960; no evidence of the railway line is visible on the footbridge.
Since the demolition of the gas works, other names have been used for the bridge. For a few years after the closure of the railway it appears to have been crossed by a private road, and the Environment Agency refers to the bridge simply as "Road Bridge", although no road now crosses it. The bridge is now usually referred to by its old name. It has occasionally been referred to as Osney Footbridge, although the bridge is some distance from Osney, and that name is also used for a different bridge.
Famous quotes containing the words gasworks and/or bridge:
“She passes the houses which humbly crowd outside,
The gasworks and at last the heavy page
Of death, printed by gravestones in the cemetery.”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)
“Oh, who will now be able to relate how Pantagruel behaved in face of these three hundred giants! Oh my muse, my Calliope, my Thalie, inspire me now, restore my spirits, because here is the ass’s bridge of logic, here is the pitfall, here is the difficulty of being able to describe the horrible battle undertaken.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)