Engineering Features
South of Weston-super-Mare the line crosses the western end of the Mendip Hills, at Uphill, through a deep cutting spanned by a 115 feet (35 m) masonry arch bridge, known locally as Devil's Bridge, which is built into the rock sides. It then runs south across the Somerset Levels.
At Bridgwater a retractable bridge was built in 1871 to the design of Sir Francis Fox. It carried a short industrial branch line over the River Parrett to the docks, but the bridge had to be movable, to allow boats to proceed upriver. An 80-foot (24 m) section of railway track to the east of the bridge could be moved sideways, so that the main 127-foot (39 m) girders could be retracted, creating a navigable channel which was 78 feet (24 m) wide. It was manually operated for the first eight months, and then powered by a steam engine, reverting to manual operation in 1913, when the steam engine failed. The bridge was last opened in 1953, and the traverser section was demolished in 1974, but public outcry at the action resulted in the bridge being listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the rest of the bridge was kept. It was later used as a road crossing, until the construction of the Chandos road bridge alongside it, and is now only used by pedestrians. Parts of the steam engine were moved to Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum in 1977. The bridge is now a Grade II* listed building.
The main line crosses the River Parrett just south of Bridgwater on the Somerset Bridge, with a 100 feet (30 m) span but a rise of just 12 feet (3.7 m). Work started in 1838 and was completed in 1841. Brunel left the centering scaffold in place as the foundations were still settling but was forced to remove it in 1843 to reopen the river for navigation. Brunel demolished the brick arch and had replaced it with a timber arch within six months without interrupting the traffic on the railway. This was in turn replaced in 1904 by a steel girder bridge.
At Taunton the River Tone was straightened to avoid the need for two bridges close together. West of Taunton gradients of 1 in 80 were needed to cross the Blackdown Hills and at the summit on the Somerset-Devon border the 1,092 yards (999 m) Whiteball Tunnel was constructed.
Read more about this topic: Bristol And Exeter Railway
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