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Primary sourceArtifact1849

Windsor Railway Bridge

Isambard Kingdom Brunel · 1849

A wrought-iron bowstring railway bridge over the Thames at Windsor, designed by Brunel and opened in 1849.

Brunel designed this bridge, a forerunner to his later Royal Albert Bridge, showing his engineering ingenuity.

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Photo of a steel arch truss railway bridge spanning over grass, with a brick viaduct with two arched openings on the right. Blue sky with clouds above, bare trees on the left.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Windsor Railway Bridge, 1849. Windsor, England.

About this source

What it is

Windsor Railway Bridge is a wrought-iron 'bow and string' bridge crossing the River Thames at Windsor, Berkshire. It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to carry the Great Western Railway's Slough to Windsor & Eton line, and opened on 8 October 1849. It still stands and carries trains today.

Why it matters

The bridge had to leave the river completely unobstructed, a condition demanded by the Provost of Eton College. This forced Brunel to use advanced materials and design, and the result is considered a forerunner to his later masterpiece, the Royal Albert Bridge. It is believed to be the oldest wrought iron railway bridge still in regular use, showing how Brunel solved tricky engineering and political problems together.

Look closer

  • Why might a nearby school have had the power to limit how a bridge was built?
  • What do the later changes (new piles, brick abutments, steel girders) tell you about how structures like this age and get repaired?
  • What does the bridge's continued use today tell you about Victorian engineering?

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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