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Primary sourceArtifact1859

Windmill Bridge (Three Bridges)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel · 1859

A unique stacked crossing of road, canal and railway in Southall, designed by Brunel as his last major project before his death.

Designed by Brunel as his last major project, completed only two months before his death.

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A railway track runs under a set of stacked pale blue iron bridges and brick abutments. A brick arch opens beneath, with graffiti on the left retaining wall and overgrown vegetation on the right. Gravel and grass line the track bed.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Windmill Bridge ('Three Bridges'), 1859. Hanwell, London.

About this source

What it is

Windmill Bridge, known as 'Three Bridges', is a crossing where a road bridge over a canal is itself carried in a cast-iron trough over a railway cutting, in Southall, London. It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western and Brentford Railway, opening for freight in 1859. It is a scheduled monument.

Why it matters

This was Brunel's last major engineering work before his death in 1859, completed just two months before he died. Though Brunel was chief engineer, he was also busy with the SS Great Eastern and the Royal Albert Bridge at the time, so his assistants likely carried out much of the detailed work. It is one of fewer than ten surviving cast-iron bridges by Brunel, and the site keeps its name from a windmill once painted by J. M. W. Turner.

Look closer

  • Why might three different kinds of transport need to cross at exactly this spot?
  • What does the choice of this site, avoiding a park and hospital, tell you about the limits engineers faced?
  • How might Brunel's many other projects at the time have affected this one?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Isambard Kingdom Brunel on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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