The Galton Bridge is a cast-iron bridge in Smethwick, near Birmingham, in central England. It was built by Thomas Telford to carry a road across the new main line of the Birmingham Canal, which was built in a deep cutting. The bridge is 26 ft (7.9 m) wide, 150 ft (46 m) long, and 70 ft (21 m) above the canal, making it reputedly the highest single-span arch bridge in the world when it was built. The Galton Bridge was forged at the nearby Horseley Ironworks, and has masonry abutments. The design includes decorative lamp-posts and X-shaped bracing in the spandrels. In the 1840s, a railway bridge was built from one of the abutments, with a parapet in keeping with the original. The Galton Bridge carried traffic for over 140 years until it was bypassed by a new road in the 1970s, and now only carries pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge is one of six built by Telford that share common design features and the only one still standing without modification. It is a Grade I listed building.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galton_Bridge> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1857: The University of Calcutta was established as the first modern university in the Indian subcontinent. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Calcutta> 1915: First World War: British ships of the Grand Fleet intercepted and surprised a German High Seas Fleet squadron in the North Sea, sinking a cruiser and damaging several other vessels. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dogger_Bank_%281915%29> 1966: Air India Flight 101, en route from Bombay to London, crashed into Mont Blanc in France, killing all 117 people on board. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_101> 1989: American serial killer Ted Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida for the murders of thirty young women. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: mnemonic: 1. Something (especially a series of ideas, letters, words, etc.) used to help in remembering a thing; a memory aid. 2. (computing) The human-readable, textual form of an assembly language instruction, not including operands. 3. (obsolete) Synonym of mnemonics (“the study of techniques for remembering anything more easily”) 4. Especially of a series of ideas, letters, words, etc.: intended to help in remembering. 5. Of or relating to mnemonics (“the study of techniques for remembering anything more easily”). 6. Of or relating to memory. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mnemonic> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Let us be very strange and well-bred: Let us be as strange as if we had been married a great while; And as well-bred as if we were not married at all. --William Congreve <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Congreve> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
