Historedia
Episode 4 of 5

Ribs lifted and bridge first spans the river

When
2 July 1779
Where
Ironbridge Gorge crossing of the River Severn
Part of
Erection of the Iron Bridge

The cast iron ribs were lifted into place in summer 1779, and the bridge first spanned the River Severn on 2 July 1779.

The ribs were lifted into place in the summer of 1779, and the bridge first spanned the river on 2 July 1779. The two outer ribs are engraved with the words: "This bridge was cast at Coalbrook-Dale and erected in the year MDCCLXXIX" (Roman numerals for 1779). A watercolour by Elias Martin, discovered in a Stockholm museum in 1997, shows the bridge under construction in 1779.

Sources

  1. The Iron Bridge Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-06

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.