View source for Maidenhead Railway Bridge

{{Infobox bridge
|name= Maidenhead Railway Bridge
|county 1=Berkshire
|county 2=Buckinghamshire
|picture=Maidenhead Railway Bridge and Guards Club Island (Nancy).JPG
|picture caption=Maidenhead Railway Bridge
|carries=Great Western Railway
|crosses=[[River Thames]]
|locale= [[Maidenhead]]
|designer= [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]]
|design = Arch
|material = Brick
|number spans = 2
|mainspan= Each span 128 feet
|built=1838
|latitude=51.521111
|longitude=-0.701667
}}
[[File:Rain Steam and Speed the Great Western Railway.jpg|thumb|300px|Maidenhead Railway Bridge depicted by Turner in a painting from 1844]]
[[File:Maidenhead Railway Bridge - The Sounding Bridge under the arch.jpg|thumb|300px|The echoing 'Sounding Arch' from the bank]]
'''Maidenhead Railway Bridge''' (aka '''Maidenhead Viaduct''', '''The Sounding Arch''') is a railway bridge carrying the [[Great Western Main Line|main line]] of the Great Western Railway over the [[River Thames]] between [[Maidenhead]], [[Berkshire]] and [[Taplow]], [[Buckinghamshire]]. It crosses the Thames on the reach between [[Bray Lock]] and [[Boulter's Lock]] at the downstream end of [[Guards Club Island]].

Maidenhead Railway Bridge features in ''Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway'', painted by Turner in 1844 and now in the National Gallery, London.

==History==
The bridge was designed by the Great Western's engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and it was completed in 1838, but not brought into use until 1 July 1839.<ref name=MacDermot>{{cite book |last=MacDermot |first=E.T. |title=History of the Great Western Railway, vol. I: 1833–1863 |year=1927 |publisher=Great Western Railway |location=Paddington |pages=89–92 |chapter=Chapter IV: Construction – 1. Maidenhead to Twyford }}</ref> Brunel's first plan envisaged a triple-arch viaduct, but he then developed the design that is still used today.<ref name=Vaughan>{{cite book |last=Vaughan |first=A. |title=Isambard Kingdom Brunel Engineering Knight-Errant |year=1991 |publisher=John Murray |location=London |pages=76–78}}</ref> It was inspired by experiments made by his father, Marc Brunel in 1832 which Isambard had at the time financed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Clements|first=Paul|title=Marc Isambard Brunel|accessdate=Nov 30, 2015|date=2006|origyear=1970|publisher=Cromwell Press|location=Trowbridge, Wiltshire|page=199}}</ref> The railway is carried across the river on two elliptical brick arches, which at the time of building were the widest and flattest in the world.<ref name="Brindle, Brunel, 151" >{{Cite book
  |last=Brindle  |first=Steven
  |title=Brunel: The Man Who Built the World
  |year=2005
  |isbn=0-297-84408-3
  |publisher=Weidenfield & Nicholson
  |page=151
}}</ref><ref name="Gordon, Structures" >{{Cite book
  |title=Structures
  |last=Gordon  |first=J.E.
  |publisher=Penguin
  |origyear=1978  |year=1991
  |isbn=978-0-14-013628-9
  |pages=200
}}</ref> Each span is 128 feet, with a rise of only 24 feet. The flatness of the arches was necessary to avoid putting a "hump" in the bridge, which would have gone against Brunel's obsession with flat, gentle gradients (1 in 1,320 on this stretch).<ref name="Brindle, Brunel, 151" /><ref name="Gordon, Structures" /><ref >{{harvnb|Brindle|2005|pp=110–111}}</ref> The Thames towpath passes under the right-hand arch (facing upstream), which is also known as the ''Sounding Arch'', because of its spectacular echo.

It has been claimed that the board of the Great Western Railway did not believe that the arches would stay up under the weight of the trains and ordered Brunel to leave the wooden formwork used to construct the arches in place. However, Brunel simply lowered the formwork slightly so that it had no structural effect, but appeared to be in place. Later, when the formwork was washed away in floods, but the bridge remained, the strength of the arches was accepted.<ref name=MacDermot />

As built, Maidenhead Railway Bridge carried two lines of Brunel's broad gauge track. Subsequently the bridge was widened, and now carries the four lines of standard gauge track that make up the [[Great Western Main Line]] out of London Paddington Station.

=== Bridge widening ===
As built and opened on 1 July 1839, the bridge carried two seven-foot railway tracks. In due course traffic to and from London increased enormously, and mixed gauge tracks were provided between London and Bristol during 1861. In anticipation of the final conversion to the standard rail gauge, during 1890–1892 the bridge was widened on each side to carry four standard gauge tracks. This work was carried out under the supervision of Sir John Fowler, the width overall being increased from 30 ft to 57 ft 3 in. However, this was undertaken so sympathetically that the outward appearance of the bridge remained almost unaltered.<ref>{{Cite web
  |title=Maidenhead Bridge
  |url=http://www.networkrail.co.uk/VirtualArchive/maidenhead-bridge
  |publisher=Network Rail
}}</ref>

In July 2012, the Maidenhead Railway Bridge was upgraded to Grade I listed status by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport following a consultation with English Heritage.<ref name=nhle>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1319297 |desc=Railway Bridge Carrying The Winsor Slough Line Over The Thames|grade=I|accessdate=27 July 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jul/30/brunel-great-western-railway-listed |title=Brunel's Great Western railway given preservation head of steam |accessdate=1 August 2012 |date=30 July 2012 |first=Maev |last=Kennedy |newspaper=The Guardian }}</ref>

==Crossrail Modifications==
The forthcoming [[Crossrail]] development will see the long-delayed overhead electrification of the Great Western line. This construction work had been set to require a temporary construction depot to be created immediately next to the bridge in Guards Club Park on the Berkshire side of the bridge, but this decision has subsequently been reversed, though the bridge itself will obviously still undergo some changes to accommodate the Overhead line equipment. The Crossrail Environmental Statement<ref>http://billdocuments.crossrail.co.uk/files/Home/Home3/01.Environmental%20Statement/Volume_03/Chapter_09_pt1.pdf</ref> states:
<blockquote>
"The OHLE (Overhead Line Equipment) requires that supporting posts be founded on the bridge structure. These will be positioned so as not to disrupt the symmetry of the bridge. Three sets of masts will be fixed at the bridge supports and a further two sets will be fixed at the far ends of the bridge. The masts will be fixed such that they may be removed in the future without damaging the bridge as it stands today."</blockquote>
The report also states:
<blockquote>
"It is proposed that the OHLE over Maidenhead railway bridge will use masts with wires suspended from cantilevers, since these will be visually lighter structures than the gantries to be used along other parts of the route. The masts will however, have a significant adverse landscape impact: they will affect important views along the river and the character of the river corridor; they will affect the setting of the Riverside Conservation Area; and they will affect the setting of the listed railway bridge and the setting of the adjacent Grade I listed road bridge."
</blockquote>
The possibility of using third rail electrification on the bridge was considered but rejected.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmcross/235/6062706.htm |title=Select Committee on Crossrail Bill Minutes of Evidence |date=14 November 2007 |work=House of Commons Parliamentary Business |publisher=Office of Public Sector Information |location=Kew |at=q. 12310 |accessdate=19 March 2010 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Crossings of the River Thames]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Outside links ==
{{commons}}
*[http://www.newcomen.com/mhead.htm Newcomen Society information]
* {{Structurae|id=s0002219|title=Maidenhead Bridge}}. (NB This site labels the rail bridge as "Maidenhead Bridge" and [[Maidenhead Bridge]] as "Maidenhead Road Bridge")