Galton Bridge (grid reference SP015894) is a canal bridge in Smethwick, West Midlands, England built by Thomas Telford in 1829. It spans Telford's Birmingham Canal Navigations New Main Line carrying Roebuck Lane. When it was constructed, its single span of 151 feet (46 metres) was the highest in the world (the Menai Suspension Bridge was longest). Originally a road bridge it is now restricted to pedestrians. It is a Grade I listed building, and lends its name to the adjacent Smethwick Galton Bridge railway station.
It is similar to Holt Fleet Bridge, Telford's Grade II listed bridge over the River Severn at Holt in Worcestershire and was named after Samuel Galton, a member of the Lunar Society. It was cast by Horseley Ironworks.
Famous quotes containing the word bridge:
“It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O, my soul.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)