CONSTRUCTION HISTORY

The Victorian cast iron bridge opened with great fanfare in 1856 had a short life. Only fifty years after its completion, it was already showing the strain. Several spectacular collisions had damaged the cast iron arches below the bridge, and the quinquennial inspection of April 1909 showed numerous fractured floor plates, damaged ribs, and missing or defective bolts. The swing bridge, which in the end had never been opened, had been permanently closed during the 1890s and the winding gear removed. The time had arrived for major renovation.

Damage to the underside of the Rochester Bridge.

Damage by the Lighter "Diamond"
20 February 1896

In April 1910, after considering several designs put forward by bridge engineer John Robson, the Wardens and Assistants of Rochester Bridge approved plans to reconstruct the bridge by raising the roadway and suspending it from arches above the road surface instead of supporting it on arches below. After an expenditure of £95, 887 the bridge was once again declared open for traffic on 14 May 1914. The reconstructed bridge, known today as the Old Bridge, has three arched steel truss spans and a plate girder approach span with ramps at each end. The Strood Approach at the western end is constructed over brick arches. The carriageway, originally built for two tramway tracks and third lane for overtaking traffic, is 7.93 metres wide. Today, it carries the two lanes of westward-bound traffic from Rochester to Strood.