[DerekTKing]

I like this image very much and I think it is fine as it is. Some times the image is enough in its self.

Originally Posted by KenCo1964

The Hownsgill Viaduct (The Gill Bridge) was constructed in 1857 and spans 700ft across a ravine, it is made up of almost 3 million white fire bricks and stands 175ft tall weighing approximately 12,0000 tonnes. It has 12 arches each with a 50ft span and at a total cost of £12,500 to build. It was Thomas Bouch an engineer who was given the tender and later knighted by Queen Victoria during his career but later ended his life in disgrace after the collapse of his greatest achievement The Tay Bridge. Before the viaduct was built the rail journey had been interrupted by this ravine and freight had to be taken across it on wagons which were lowered and raised by means of a stationary steam haulage engine.
Now, part of the Derwent walk it is still used by cyclists and walkers crossing the ravine and more notably a place were people in dispair take there lives, Most recent that of a mother and her child. Because of the suicide activity at this bridge, it has gained a reputation with those down on there luck and, used as a term for feeling low, out of luck and as an insult, a place to go and jump.
I have been here many times as a kid, infact my parents owned a public house namely The North Eastern Hotel a few miles down the track. As kids we were always led to believe that the red crosses painted in places on the bridge, were marks where people had fallen whilst working on the building of this, I still don’t know for sure but feel it was just a childs imaginative story.


Thanks for looking.
C&C welcome.
Ken.
PS. It just goes to show that weeds will grow anywhere!