Exeter Bridge

Exeter Bridge - Derby

Looking toward the Market Place
Coordinates 52°55′26″N 1°28′26″W / 52.9238°N 1.4738°W / 52.9238; -1.4738Coordinates: 52°55′26″N 1°28′26″W / 52.9238°N 1.4738°W / 52.9238; -1.4738
Carries Traffic
Crosses River Derwent
Locale Derbyshire
Maintained by Derby City Council
Characteristics
Design Road Bridge
Total length 50 metres
Width 15 Metres
Height 10 metres
History
Designer Charles Herbert Aslin
Construction start August 1927
Opened 20 March 1929
Statistics
Daily traffic 3,000 (2009 estimates)
Toll Free

Exeter Bridge is a Traffic Single Span Concrete Arch Bridge in the centre of Derby spanning the River Derwent 200 metres south of the more modern Cathedral Green Footbridge.

History

Derby's original Exeter Bridge started life as a timber footbridge built by the Binghams of Exeter House, in order to access their gardens on the other side of the River Derwent.[1] Exeter House was eventually demolished because of cost and to allow improvements to the bridge to be made.[2] The old Exeter bridge was demolished in 1929 and replaced by a single span concrete style designed by Charles Herbert Aslin of the City Architect's Department, who was also responsible for Derby's now demolished Art Deco Style Bus Station.

During construction a test was carried out to see if it would hold the weight of the traffic. Civil Engineers ran a procession of traction engines, steam rollers and heavy lorries across the bridge to see if it could take the strain.

It was officially opened by the minister of transport, Herbert Morrison on 13 March 1931.

Exeter Bridge features Bas relief sculptures of.[3]

References

  1. "First Exeter Bridge".
  2. "Exeter House Panelling". Derby.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  3. "Four famous Derbeians".
  4. "Letter 5145 — Darwin, C. R. to Wallace, A. R., 5 July (1866)". Darwin Correspondence Project. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
     Maurice E. Stucke. "Better Competition Advocacy" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-08-29. Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology of 1864, vol. 1, p. 444, wrote “This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called ‘natural selection’, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.”
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