In 1824, George Stephenson was appointed as Principal Engineer for the proposed new railway line to be built from Liverpool to Manchester. It was considered impossible to divert the existing turnpike road or to realign the route of the railway at the crossing point, so a bridge had to be constructed over the railway line at an angle of 34º. The arch was built of large sandstone blocks from a Rainhill quarry and each one specially shaped taken from a wooden model.
The ‘skew bridge’ was the first bridge in the world to carry road traffic over a passenger railway and the Engineer responsible for building the bridge was George Findlay from Inverness who also constructed the Sankey Viaduct.
The inscription
Erected June 1829
Charles Lawrence Esq., Chairman
George Stephenson, Engineer
was engraved on each face of the bridge, but one inscription was lost due to road widening.
The cost of building the bridge was £3,735 and it has changed little in over 188 years, except that it was widened by on one side by four feet in 1963 to provide a footpath.
Robert Stephenson, George’s son, built the Rocket steam locomotive which won the prize at the Rainhill Trials in 1829.
Image courtesy of Liverpool City Central Library
The skew bridge looking towards Liverpool from Rainhill Station
The skew bridge as seen from Warrington Road with the new sandstone blocks added when the train line was electrified.