Old Iron Bridge still arching its back

Jamaica is riddled with bridges, what with our topography of hills, valleys, gullies, gorges, rivers and streams. Some are massive structures, others are not so impressive; but they all serve the same purpose, to get people, animals and things across the features listed above.

And if they could talk they would have told stories, stories of joy, carelessness, rescue, hardship, misery, fear, natural disasters, deluge, doom and death. The famous, but fearsome Flat Bridge that span the Rio Cobre in the Bog Walk Gorge in St Catherine comes to mind. Who in this country has never heard about it?

While it has been hogging the limelight with its enthralling stories, it is nowhere as magnificent as the Old Iron Bridge, near Spanish Town. Arching way above the Rio Cobre, it is an important public thoroughfare for the people who live across the river. But, how did it get there?

It was designed by English engineer Thomas Wilson, and constructed using the Burdon principle by the firm of Samuel Walker and Company in 1800. Casted with iron elements in Rotterdam in the southern Netherlands, it is 82 feet long and 15 feet wide. After it was completed it was dismantled and transported to the port of Hull in England, from where it was placed on-board the Ellison, which departed to Jamaica on November 28, 1800. But, the ship did not arrive until May 30, 1801.

CIVIL ENGINEERING MARVEL

To situate the bridge, the level of the main road to and from Spanish Town was raised, then an abutment (a buttress) was built on each side of the river. The area was prone to flooding when the river was in spate. Rising 98 feet, the buttresses consist of cut limestone rocks, which are held together by lime mortar and brick. The prefabricated parts, weighing a total of 87 tons, were assembled and mounted on the stone abutments by Messieurs Campbell and McIntyre in 1802 for four thousand pounds.

It was opened to traffic in July 1802, exactly 220 years ago, and 160 years before August 1962. Many others that were built long after it was opened have long disappeared into oblivion, leaving this civil engineering marvel in a magnificent class by itself. Because of disrepair, it was once placed on the UNESCO list of endangered world sites.

Now, it is said to be the oldest of its kind in all of the Western Hemisphere. Not so long ago the face of the eastern buttress was reinforced while keeping its authentic masonry look. There was also the reconstruction of the main support archway, and the interiors of the buttresses were reinforced with more stonework. The bridge is a national monument as declared by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. Generations have traversed it, and many more will, it seems.