An important early road suspension bridge by John Green of Newcastle upon Tyne. It has a span of 52.7 m (173 ft) and the road deck is about9.1 m 30 ft) above river water level. The bridge is still supported by its original chains, making it unique amongst early British suspension bridges.
The chains are very similar to those of Captain Samuel Brown's patent. The chains are 102 mm (4 in) deep, the links also being similar to those which Green used for his Scotswood suspension bridge of the same period -held together with large bolts and hexagon-head nuts. The abutments are stone, and the suspension towers are carried up from the river bed. A toll house survives at the north end.
The 1829 Act of Parliament which granted permission for the building of Whorlton Bridge refers to it being part of a new Staindrop to Greta Bridge turnpike road. Work started on June 9, 1829 and progressed until October 13 when there was a great flood which washed all the stonework away, due to the immense variation in water level in the Tees, caused by water pouring of the fells. A suspension bridge seemed the solution and there were examples nearby.
The first suspension bridge in Britain had stood up-stream at Middleton-in-Teesdale. The Wynch Bridge (see entry) had been erected around 1704 so that lead miners could cross the Tees near High Force. In 1820, Sir Samuel Brown built the Union Bridge (see entry) over the Tweed. However, in 1830, Sir Samuel Brown's suspension bridge at Montrose had collapsed - less than a year old, it sent the seven hundred people who had gathered on it to watch a boat race plummeting into the river beneath.
Undeterred, the Whorlton team men completed the tower on the Durham side of the Tees on August 19, 1830, but bad news arrived in December - Sir Samuel Brown had just completed the world's first railway suspension bridge for the Stockton and Darlington Railway over the Tees at Stockton: as the first train passed over, the bridge rose in the middle and the pillar on the Yorkshire side cracked (it was demolished twelve years later). On 1 April l831, chains were successfully attached to the Durham tower and the elegant structure was opened on 7 July, 1831.
It did, however, suffer from movement and the bridge was overhauled and strengthened early in the 20th Century. Tolls were imposed until ownership of the bridge passed from private hands to Durham County Council during the First World War. It is a Grade II* Listed Structure and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
By road: Off A67, on a track leading out of Whorlton village.
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