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The Oldest Railway Bridge
The Canterbury and Whitstable railway has contributed much to
the history to the town of Whitstable and generated so many fond
memories for its people. However, no single feature quite matched up to
the quaint piece of engineering that carried the trains over the
thoroughfare of Old Bridge Road. It was of course the brick bridge
that laid claim to the title "Oldest Railway Bridge in
the World". In the next few weeks, we will try to piece together its story
and collect the anecdotes of our readers. We make a
start here.... thanks to both Terry Phillips and Jock Harnett.
End of the
"Railway" Bridge...
In many ways, the demise of the bridge was a long drawn out
process. It started in 1953 when the line closed for the last
time. Shortly afterwards (possibly towards the end of that year),
the rail track was removed. Terry's father, local chemist Gordon
Phillips, was at his Old Bridge Road home for lunch at the very
time that the rails were removed from that section of line and he
managed to capture a sad but historic event...
The photo shows a rail being lifted over the guard rail. This
photo later appeared in an article in Meccano magazine.
End of the Bridge
Despite the loss of the trains and track, the bridge remained a
celebrated piece of town 'furniture' for several more decades
before it was demolished. Undoubtedly, the bridge's original design didn't endear it to
planners or motorists. It was low, narrow and.... well.... just
plain quirky! The quirkiness stemmed from the fact that
it wasn't a straight arch. It was a twisted arch! Put it all together and you had a traffic headache.
Let's take
a look at a photo supplied by Jock Harnett....
As you can see, the bridge was too low to accommodate a double
decker bus, too narrow to cope with anything but one-way traffic
and too twisted to provide a clear sight of traffic approaching
from the opposite direction. On top of all this, it could not
provide pavements for pedestrians.
As road traffic increased.... so did the collisions and, living
in Railway Avenue as a kid, I heard a few! Sadly, a sense of history, heritage and romanticism were set
aside by cold logic and a desire to be modern. Suddenly, the bridge was no
more.
Was demolition necessary when there were other routes for
heavy traffic. Even today, the debate continues.
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