The historic Billingham Branch rail bridge was a major advance, being the first in Britain to be built using welded steel construction. It was built in 1932 to carry the approach road to the Newport Lift Bridge, over the Billingham Branch Railway, which was itself quite new, coming into service in 1920.
The pictures show that both the internal and external design have been beautifully laid out, with the vertical members being cut to form a curved shape. It could easily be taken to a bridge that had been designed in the late 1970s.
The man in one of the pictures is Mr Charles Morris a distinguished civil engineer from Teesside. Some years ago he was responsible for strengthening the haunches of the Billingham Branch Bridge as they were tending to move inwards. According to Mr Morris, soil conditions in Teesside are not good for heavy civil engineering projects, and this has made bridge construction quite difficult.
Photographs and details courtesy of Fred Starr
Picture Stockton Archive 
The Reference Section of Stockton Library now have a short report on this historic bridge in the form of an article in the December 2018 issue of Newcomen Links magazine. This issue also has good articles on the history of ammonia production at ICI Billingham and on the Cleveland Institute of Engineers. This organisation first began to meet at a house on Church Row
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