So Where is the Bridge?

This shot is taken where the River Foss flows into the River Ouse, to the south of York city centre, at the site of Blue Bridge, a very popular walking and cycling route.

In the early 1730s a section of the eastern river bank of the Ouse was improved, at the expense of the city, to create an area lined with trees along which the citizens could promenade. It proved so popular that within a few years this New Walk was extended further south past the junction with the Foss by way of a wooden drawbridgem which opened in 1738.This new bridge was painted blue and the colour and name have endured though the bridge itself has been replaced several times, the first of these being in 1768 when a single arch stone bridge was constructed. In 1792 the Foss Navigation Company built a wooden swing-bridge to enable boats to access the Foss and this type of bridge was used again when the bridge was rebuilt in 1834. In 1857–58 an iron opening-bridge was built along with two stone plinths upon which stood two Russian cannons. These had been captured at the Battle of Sebastopol in 1855 and became the Crimean War Memorial in York and as such they were retained when the current bridge was built in 1929–30 only to be removed in 1941 when they were scrapped and reused for the war effort.

Today, the 1929 bridge is in need of renovation, so a temporary scaffolding bridge (on which I was stood) has been built and Blue Bridge removed to allow a full restoration can take place. The approaches to the bridge are surrounded by scaffolding which has since been covered to allow renovation of those as well.

I'm not sure how long the work is due to take, but hopefully we will soon see Blue Bridge back in it's proper location again.

Ian

[Peter Dulis]

Nice

[Margaret Brown]

Super history and nice to know it’s being renovated to last many more years.

[Nina Ganci]

wonderful history of blue bridge - love the fact that the scaffolding are blue

[Judith Johnson]

An interesting project

[gloria jones]

Neat photo of the bridge work and super history

[william wooderson]

With that remarkable history, I look forward to seeing a photo of the bridge when it is eventually fully renovated! :-)

[Pyrrhula]

Great shot of the restaurations works.

[KWind]

Looks like a big project!

[Janet]

Great to read of the history behind your photos!

[Pat]

That bridge has certainly seen some changes, I can't wait to see the finished result. Great shot.

[Casablanca]

Wow, new things happening there then!

[Dione Giorgio]

Great story for this bridge. glad they are having it restored.

[Fisher Family]

@pdulis @craftymeg @ninaganci @busylady @seattlite @will_wooderson @pyrrhula @kwind @janturnbull @pattyblue @casablanca @sangwann

Thank you all for your lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.

The renovation project is due for completion quite soon, so I will be going to see the result. Now if only I could discover the date and time the bridge is due to be lowered back into place...

Ian