Bridges of Newport (6)

Railway bridge

The Great Western Railway Usk bridge [1] is a crossing of the River Usk in Newport city centre, Wales. It carries the Great Western Main Line across the river in an east—west direction.

The original wooden structure was constructed by the South Wales Railway in 1848, but just as the final arch was being put into place on 31 May, a heated bolt ignited chemicals used to preserve the wood and a catastrophic fire destroyed most of the structure.

To prevent a recurrence of the fire, the renowned railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel invented the now-common bow-string-shaped girders to replace the wood sections.

In 1888 the bridge was replaced with one made of stone, and by 1911 it had been widened to four lines. It was electrified as part of the 21st Century upgrade of the Great Western Main Line in 2019.