The Ouse Valley Viaduct (or the Balcombe Viaduct) carries the London-Brighton Railway Line over the River Ouse in Sussex. It is located to the north of Haywards Heath and the south of Balcombe. Known for its ornate design, the structure has been described as "probably the most elegant viaduct in Britain."
Construction of the Ouse Valley Viaduct commenced by the London & Brighton Railway company in 1839. It was designed by the principal engineer for the line, John Urpeth Rastrick, in association with the architect of the London to Brighton railway, David Mocatta. The viaduct is 96 feet (29 m) high and is carried on 37 semi-circular arches, each of 30 feet (9.1 m), surmounted by balustrades, spanning a total length of 1,480 feet (450 m). Each pier contains a jack arch with a semi-circular soffit, which had the benefit of reducing the number of bricks required. The roughly 11 million bricks required for its construction were mostly shipped up the River Ouse (via Newhaven and Lewes) from the Netherlands. On 12 July 1841, the viaduct was officially opened to train services, although the structure was not fully completed until the following year.
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Infrastructure Architecture
King's Cross
King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United Kingdom and the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line to Yorkshire and the Humber, North East England and Scotland. Adjacent to King's Cross station is St Pancras International, the London terminus for Eurostar services to continental Europe. Beneath both main line stations is King's Cross St Pancras tube station on the London Underground; combined, they form one of the country's largest and busiest transport hubs.
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London St Pancras International
St Pancras railway station (/'pæ?kr?s/), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to London. It provides East Midlands Railway services to Leicester, Corby, Derby, Sheffield and Nottingham on the Midland Main Line, Southeastern high-speed trains to Kent via Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International, and Thameslink cross-London services to Bedford, Cambridge, Peterborough, Brighton, Horsham and Gatwick Airport. It stands between the British Library, the Regent's Canal and London King's Cross railway station, with which it shares a London Underground station, King's Cross St Pancras.
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London Blackfriars
Blackfriars, also known as London Blackfriars, is a central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides Thameslink services: local (from North to South London), and regional (Bedford and Cambridge to Brighton) and limited Southeastern commuter services to South East London and Kent. Its platforms span the River Thames, the only one in London to do so, along the length of Blackfriars Railway Bridge, a short distance downstream from Blackfriars Bridge. There are two station entrances either side of the Thames, along with a connection to the London Underground District and Circle lines.
The main line station was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway with the name St. Paul's in 1886, as a replacement for the earlier Blackfriars Bridge station (now the present station's southern entrance) and the earlier Blackfriars railway bridge. This increased capacity of rail traffic through the Snow Hill tunnel to the rest of the rail network. The Underground station opened in 1870 with the arrival of the Metropolitan District Railway. The station was renamed Blackfriars in 1937 to avoid confusion with St Paul's tube station. It was rebuilt in the 1970s, which included the addition of office space above the station and the closure of the original railway bridge, which was demolished in 1985.
In 2009, the station underwent major refurbishments to improve capacity, which included the extension of the platforms across the railway bridge and a new station entrance on the South Bank. The underground station was rebuilt at the same time, and work was completed in 2012.
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The Vicksburg I-20 Bridge and the Vicksburg Old Highway 80 Bridge
The Vicksburg I-20 Bridge
The Bridge opened on February 14, 1973. The Vicksburg I-20 Bridge is a cantilever bridge that crosses over the Mississippi river from Delta, Louisiana to Vicksburg, Mississippi. It is a four Lane Highway Structure 1-20 / US 80. Traffic: Vehicle 35,000/day Length: 12,974 feet (3,954 m), 7 spans, (Longest Spans ,1870 feet (265 m) Width 60 feet (18m).
www.chm4.comVicksburg Old Highway 80 Bridge
Until 1998, the bridge was open to motor vehicles and carried U.S. Route 80 (US 80) across the Mississippi River. It is now only a railroad bridge, though one road lane runs through the bridge for inspection by workers. It was replaced by the new Vicksburg Bridge, a short distance down river, for vehicle crossings.
During the period when the bridge was open to regular traffic a rather unusual system was used to handle the tractor-trailer truck traffic which used the bridge. Located at each end of the bridge, there were a pair of railroad styled signal towers, which required trucks to stop. At one time trucks were allowed to traverse the bridge along with other vehicle and train traffic. In order to do this the truck driver would pull the passenger side mirror in and then position his front passenger side tire against a rail located just off the roadway surface. Using this method trucks could meet and pass each other while traveling east or west. The most unnerving was going east and meeting a train moving westward on the trucks passenger side and another truck west bound on the drivers side. The signal towers prevented this from occurring anymore. Once stopped, the towers would close off traffic for all vehicles in both directions, and then allow trucks to cross the bridge alone, using the full width of both of the narrow lanes, as opposed to staying in just one lane. Due to numerous safety concerns, crossings by trucks were limited to day time only operation, with trucks being required to wait until dawn before being allowed on the bridge.
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