| Date | 9 March 2012 |
|---|---|
| Source | Slough Observer |
| Reference | VP-0021 |
| Volume | Views of the Past |
| Collection | Views of the Past |
Transcript
Triumph of engineering
Views of the past by Elias Kupfermann
WHILE glancing through my emails this week, I came across a press release about a new website which contains a selection of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s original architectural drawings from the Network Rail virtual archive – containing 5 million records.
Included on the website are the original architectural drawings of Brunel’s railway bridge, which crossed the Thames at Maidenhead. The bridge is immortalised by Joseph Mallard Turner’s iconic 1844 painting Rain, Steam And Speed.
The 1830s saw the start of the construction of the Great Western Railway, which would permanently change the way people travelled across south-east England.
Prior to 1839, the railway only ran from London Paddington to Taplow, which acted as a terminus. Track had been laid on the opposite side of the River Thames at Maidenhead. The bridging ran of the railway at Maidenhead was one of Brunel’s greatest challenges and possibly one of the greatest feats of world engineering.
The bridge, which Brunel designed and constructed, was opened on July 1, 1839 and was built entirely from brick.
The bridge consisted of two shallow spans over the river, which combined a rise of only 24ft (7.3m) with an unprecedented width of 128ft (39m).
During construction, wooden scaffolding was built to support the building of the masonry arches. The Great Western Railway directors did not share Brunel’s faith in his own abilities and insisted that this scaffolding, initially at least, remain in place to reinforce the bridge. Secretly, Brunel arranged for the timber frame to be slightly lowered without the support he knew that the bridge would remain solid. In the end, the timber frame was washed away, either by strong winds or the river in flood, according to different accounts.
The bridge remained, and was immediately recognised as a triumph of engineering.
As railway travel became more popular, the demand for trains increased dramatically, and mixed-gauge tracks were provided between London and Bristol during 1861.
Between 1890-1892 the bridge was widened on each side in order to carry four standard gauge tracks. This work was undertaken so sympathetically that the outward appearance of the bridge remained almost unaltered.
Brunel’s architectural drawings of the bridge can be accessed through Network Rail’s website at www.networkrail.co.uk/virtualarchive
Images
Curator's References
For the bridge, try Network Rail’s page 131 – Windsor Branch Railway. [accessed 27 Jul 2026]
A short biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) is also on their website. [accessed 27 Jul 2026]