Ironbridge

This was the first bridge built out of iron in the world.  It is a traditional iron working area, with  water, wood (for charcoal) and iron ore all close together, with evidence of iron smelting going right back to pre-historic times.  That said -  it is a really pretty little country town now,  the iron works have all moved on  and the town has shrunk to match its  new status.

As you can see it was originally opened as a toll bridge with a really comprehensive scedule of fees.  However the bridge is closed to traffic now and there is a small museum in  the old toll house, which features drawings of how the bridge was constructed using pioneering (for the time) techniques.  The next two pictures shows the gorge the bridge crosses, and looking down steam (past the canoers) you can just see the supports of the new bridge that  has replaced the Iron Bridge as the main  river crossing.  The fifth picture shows the view across the bridge into the town and the last picture shows the cast iron kerbs used in the town.  It appears that they had so much iron it was cheaper to make cast iron kerbs rather than fetch in stone!