Talk:The Iron Bridge

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This article needs to give a better sense of the scale of this bridge. For while "it was the first bridge of its size to be made out of cast iron," the article never mentions what the span of the bridge is, and the current picture doesn't have any contextual clues to give hints at its size. --Dantheox 04:14, 12 February 2006 (UTC)


  • Excellent point: I will insert some dimensions etc Peterlewis 05:47, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Merge with Ironbridge

It seems that at one point these were one article, and I have to say it's confusing to find them separated. Ironbridge really doesn't contain any information beyond the bridge itself, and it's odd to see what looks like the same article listed twice in categories. –Ryan McDaniel 07:01, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Better to sort the information out into one article about the settlement of Ironbridge and another article, this one, for the actual bridge itself. Therefore I suggest no merge. David 19:41, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
I agree. The Iron Bridge is an iconic symbol of the industrial revolution, and deserves an article of its own. Ironbridge is an urban village that takes its name from the bridge. Peterkingiron 21:41, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
The general consensus over on Ironbridge seems to be that we don't merge the articles again. Do you think it's safe to remove the merge tags and maybe add an expand tag or something? Oggy 14:42, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Industrial archaeology

Is the bridge itself the archaeological site, or is it Coalbrookdale round the corner? Btw, didn't know of Wiki when I was last there, so didn't pick up ref materials, but if you can get at such, it would be amazing to have stuff on the recently excavated blast furnaces, which as I remember show the expansions Darby III had to make in order to cast the bridge pieces. I practically fell on my knees before it... JackyR 18:43, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

The whole area is an archaeological site, and the bridge itself gave the name to an archaeological award in the past. Noisy | Talk 11:51, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
Yes, but the bridge is a bridge and the town is a town, just sharing the same name, both entirely different things. There is no reason to merge these two articles in my opinion, as they share only the name. Segafreak2 | Talk 23:47, 04 April 2006 (GMT)

[edit] Iconic symbol

The blast furnaces have been excavated for some time, surely? The bridge is an icon but was grossly over-designed (because they didn't test or didn't appreciate loads and stresses). If you look closely, it is badly cracked in over 70 places (according to English Heritage) yet still stands. That must mean that much of the structure is redundant. Compare it with the very graceful bridge at Coalport 2 mles downstream which still takes traffic and you will instantly see how design could succeed with minimal cast iron. Telford's cast iron bridges are also very elegant, and many are still well used such as the Waterloo bridge at Bettws-y-coed. The full story is told in Cossans recent book. Peterlewis 20:24, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] question

Traffic was stopped from crossing the bridge in 1934, but tolls were still collected until 1950

How can tolls be collected if there wasn't any traffic? Something needs to be clarified.

Clarified. Noisy | Talk 10:55, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tolls

Traffic means vehicular traffic, not foot users, I suppose. Peterlewis 10:16, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Picky, picky, picky ... but a good point, so I've added 'vehicular'. Noisy | Talk 11:00, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name of article

I don't want to get into any form of edit war here so I wish to ask the community, what should the name of this article be? As far as I'm aware, the bridge is known as The Iron Bridge. So shouldn't that be the article name, regardless of any naming conventions on Wikipedia? You're input would be much appreciated. Oggy 18:07, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Having re-read the naming conventions referenced in the edit summary it seems I was mistaken in my first post (The White House for example is named White House). I still feel the article name is far from ideal. Any ideas? Oggy 18:12, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
The only realistic alternative to the present name (The Iron Bridge) is Iron Bridge, which is presently a disambiguation page that would need moving to Iron Bridge (disambiguation). IMHO "Iron Bridge" is too generic and too easily confused with Ironbridge. Thryduulf 18:51, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
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