Warrington Transporter Bridge

There are only three surviving transporter bridges in the UK and while the ones in Middlesbrough and Newport are reasonably well known (and frequently appear on blip) you rarely hear about the Warrington equivalent. 

There are several reasons for this not least the fact that it is now derelict and hidden away on the River Mersey in the middle of chemical factories. So while Middlesbrough and Newport are still used and have visitors centres it is difficult to even spot the Warrington bridge and finding the access isn't easy at all. I ventured out there today to find a geocache and while I have been nearby on several occasions I have never visited the bridge itself.

I managed to get to the bridge by following a well hidden road through an industrial estate and under a railway bridge before accessing a path to the Mersey and walking a short distance back to the bridge. As it is in the middle of a chemical plant there are plenty of cameras around and a security van passed by on the other side of the fence to see what I was up to. Apparently if you access the bridge from the other direction an automated alert is triggered to tell you that you are on CCTV.

The bridge itself has a span of 200ft is 30ft wide and 76ft above sea level. It was designed by William Henry Hunter and built by Sir William Arrol & Co in 1915 to connect two sections of the soap and chemical plant. Uniquely it was built to carry rail traffic although it was later converted to carry road transport. The bridge fell into disuse in the mid 1960s but it is protected as a Grade II listed building and owned by Warrington Borough Council.

There is no public access from the west bank so photo opportunities are limited to the east side and I have included pictures from both directions.

On an entirely different subject Wanderlust starts on TV tonight and I will be looking out for myself as I appeared as an extra last November. If memory serves me correctly I was there for the first day of filming so I presume that if I do appear I will be in the background at the start of the first episode but I suspect you will just see my old car. At least it might give me something to blip tomorrow.