# Dee Bridge disaster > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dee_Bridge_disaster > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dee_Bridge_disaster.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dee_Bridge_disaster > Source revision: 1355591423 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1847 railway accident in England This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Dee Bridge disaster" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Dee bridge disaster Details Date 24 May 1847 ~18:25 Location Chester, Cheshire Coordinates 53°11′11″N 2°54′17″W / 53.1865°N 2.9047°W / 53.1865; -2.9047 Country England Line North Wales Coast Line and Shrewsbury–Chester line Cause Bridge fail Statistics Trains 1 Passengers 22 Deaths 5 Injured 9 List of UK rail accidents by year The **Dee Bridge disaster** was a [rail accident](/source/Rail_accident) that occurred on 24 May 1847 in [Chester](/source/Chester), England, that resulted in five fatalities. It revealed the weakness of [cast iron](/source/Cast_iron) beam bridges reinforced by [wrought iron](/source/Wrought_iron) tie bars, and brought criticism of its designer, [Robert Stephenson](/source/Robert_Stephenson), the son of [George Stephenson](/source/George_Stephenson). ## Background A new bridge across the [River Dee](/source/River_Dee%2C_Wales) was needed for the [Chester and Holyhead Railway](/source/Chester_and_Holyhead_Railway), a project planned in the 1840s for the expanding [British railway system](/source/British_railway_system). It was built using cast iron [girders](/source/Girder) produced by the [Horseley Ironworks](/source/Horseley_Ironworks), each of which was made of three large castings [dovetailed](/source/Dovetail_joint) together and bolted to a raised reinforcing piece. Each girder was strengthened by wrought iron bars along the length. It was finished in September 1846, and opened for local traffic after approval by the first Railway Inspector, General [Charles Pasley](/source/Charles_Pasley). ## Accident Scene of the Railway Accident, at Chester, sketched by a 16 year old, [Alfred William Hunt](/source/Alfred_William_Hunt), and printed in *[The Illustrated London News](/source/The_Illustrated_London_News)* of 29 May 1847 On 24 May 1847, the carriages of a local passenger train to [Ruabon](/source/Ruabon) fell through the bridge into the river. The accident resulted in five deaths (three passengers, the train guard and the locomotive [fireman](/source/Fireman_(steam_engine))) and nine serious injuries.[1] The bridge had been designed by [Robert Stephenson](/source/Robert_Stephenson), and a local inquest accused him of negligence. Although strong in compression, cast iron was known to be brittle in tension or bending, yet the bridge deck was covered with [track ballast](/source/Track_ballast) on the day of the accident,[*[vague](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vagueness)*] to prevent the oak beams supporting the track from catching fire. Stephenson took that precaution because of a recent fire on the [Great Western Railway](/source/Great_Western_Railway) at [Hanwell](/source/Hanwell), in which a bridge designed by [Isambard Kingdom Brunel](/source/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel) had caught fire and collapsed.[2][3][4] ## Investigation The investigation was one of the first major inquiries conducted by the newly formed [Railway Inspectorate](/source/Railway_Inspectorate). The lead investigator was [Captain Simmons](/source/Lintorn_Simmons) of the [Royal Engineers](/source/Royal_Engineers), and his report suggested that repeated flexing of the girder weakened it substantially. He examined the broken parts of the main girder, and confirmed that it had broken in two places, with the first break occurring at the centre. He tested the remaining girders by driving a [locomotive](/source/Locomotive) across them, and found that they deflected by several inches under the moving load. His conclusion was that the design was basically flawed, and that the wrought iron [trusses](/source/Truss) fixed to the girders did not reinforce the girders at all. The same conclusion was reached by the jury at the inquest. Stephenson's design had depended on the wrought iron trusses to strengthen the final structures, but they were anchored on the cast iron girders themselves, and so deformed with any strain on the bridge. Stephenson maintained that the locomotive [derailed](/source/Derailment) whilst crossing the bridge, and the [impact force](/source/Impact_force) against the girder caused it to fracture. However, [eyewitnesses](/source/Witness) said that they saw the girder break first, and that the locomotive and tender were still on the track at the far side of the bridge. Indeed, the driver raced on to the next station to warn of the accident and prevent any traffic using the line. He then came back on the other side and drove to Chester where he gave a similar warning. ## Royal Commission This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Modern railway bridge in [Chester](/source/Chester), spanning the river between [Curzon Park](/source/Curzon_Park) and the [Roodee](/source/Roodee). Photo taken at high [tide](/source/Tide). A subsequent [Royal Commission](/source/Royal_Commission) (which reported in 1849) condemned the design and the use of trussed cast iron in railway bridges, but there were other failures of cast-iron railway underbridges in subsequent years, such as the [Wootton bridge collapse](/source/Wootton_bridge_collapse) and the [Bull bridge accident](/source/Bull_bridge_accident). Similar failures occurred in the [Inverythan crash](/source/Inverythan_crash) and the [Norwood Junction crash](/source/Norwood_Junction_crash). All the structures used untrussed cast iron girders, and generally failed due to [blowholes](/source/Casting_defect#Gas_porosity) or other [casting defects](/source/Casting_defect) within the bulk material, which were often completely hidden from external view. The Norwood accident in 1891 led to a review of all similar structures by [Sir John Fowler](/source/Sir_John_Fowler%2C_1st_Baronet), who recommended their replacement. Cast iron had been used very successfully in [the Crystal Palace](/source/The_Crystal_Palace) of 1851 and the [Crumlin Viaduct](/source/Crumlin_Viaduct) in South Wales (built in 1857), but the first [Tay Rail Bridge](/source/Tay_Rail_Bridge) of 1878 failed catastrophically due to its poor use of the material, putting the cast iron lugs on the columns into tension. The [Tay Bridge disaster](/source/Tay_Bridge_disaster) stimulated engineers to use steel, as exemplified by the [Forth Bridge](/source/Forth_Bridge) of 1890. The Dee bridge was later rebuilt using [wrought iron](/source/Wrought_iron). ## See also - [Cheshire portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Cheshire) - [List of bridge disasters](/source/List_of_bridge_disasters) - [List of structural failures and collapses](/source/List_of_structural_failures_and_collapses) - [Structural engineering](/source/Structural_engineering) - [Structural failure](/source/Structural_failure) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Simmons, Capt. J.L.A.](/source/Lintorn_Simmons) (1847), [*Report to the Commissioners of the Railways*](http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=1806), p. 16, retrieved 10 December 2016 – via Railways Archive 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Commissioners of Railways (1848). [*Report of the Commissioners of Railways*](https://books.google.com/books?id=2HAxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA103). London, England: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 103–104 – via Google Books. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Brindle, Steven (2006). [*Brunel: The Man Who Built the World*](https://books.google.com/books?id=s6Y6AgAAQBAJ&pg=PP80). New Haven, Connecticut, USA: Phoenix Press. p. 80. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781780226484](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781780226484) – via Google Books. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Coddington, J. [Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Hanwell Bridge on 26th May 1847](https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=4049) (Report) – via The Railways Archive. - Lewis, P.R.; Gagg, C. (2004). *Interdisciplinary Science Reviews*. **45** (29). {{[cite journal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_journal)}}: Missing or empty |title= ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#citation_missing_title)) - Lewis, P.R. (2007). *Disaster on the Dee: Robert Stephenson's Nemesis of 1847*. Tempus Publishing. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-7524-4266-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7524-4266-2). - Petroski, Henry (1994). *Design Paradigms*. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-521-46108-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-46108-1). - Rolt, LTC (1998). *Red for Danger*. Sutton Publishing. - Wilding, Roy (2003). *Death in Chester*. Gordon Emery. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1-872265-44-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-872265-44-8). ## External links - [Aesthetics versus function: The fall of the Dee bridge, 1847](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42796082_Aesthetics_versus_function_The_fall_of_the_Dee_bridge_1847) - [Contemporary account of accident](https://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mossvalley/mv/chester-accident.html) - [Examination of Tay and Dee bridge disasters](http://www.open2.net/forensic_engineering/riddle/riddle_01.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20080514055019/http://www.open2.net/forensic_engineering/riddle/riddle_01.htm) 14 May 2008 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) v t e Railway accidents and incidents in the 1840s Aug 7, 1840 Howden rail accident Nov 10, 1840 Locomotive Surprise Dec 24, 1841 Sonning Cutting railway accident May 8, 1842 Versailles rail accident Oct 6, 1845 Penistone rail accident Jul 1, 1846 Fampoux rail accident Jul 8, 1846 Fampoux rail accident May 24, 1847 Dee Bridge disaster May 10, 1848 Shrivenham rail collision ▶ 1850s v t e Railway accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom in the 19th century 1830s Parkside (Sep 1830) Wetheral (Dec 1836) Harrow (Aug 1838) 1840s Howden (Aug 1840) Sonning Cutting (Dec 1841) Penistone (Oct 1845) Dee Bridge (May 1847) Shrivenham (May 1848) 1850s Cowlairs (Aug 1850) Sutton Tunnel (Apr 1851) Brighton (Jun 1851) Burnley (Jun 1852) Straffan (Oct 1853) Reading Southern (Sep 1855) Lewisham (Jun 1857) Round Oak (Aug 1858) 1860s Helmshore (Sep 1860) Atherstone (Nov 1860) Wootton (Jun 1861) Clayton Tunnel (Aug 1861) ‡ Kentish Town (Sep 1861) Winchburgh (Oct 1862) Rednal (Jun 1865) Staplehurst (Jun 1865) Welwyn Tunnel (Jun 1866) Yanwath (Feb 1867) Warrington (Jun 1867) Abergele (Aug 1868) ‡ Maesycwmmer (Jun 1869) Dalton Junction (Dec 1869) 1870s Newark (Jun 1870) Tamworth (Sep 1870) Stairfoot (Dec 1870) Hatfield (Dec 1870) Ballymacarrett (May 1871) Kirtlebridge (Oct 1872) Wigan (Aug 1873) Menheniot (Dec 1873) Bo'ness Junction (Jan 1874) Thorpe (Sep 1874) ‡ Shipton-on-Cherwell (Dec 1874) ‡ Kildwick & Crosshills (Aug 1875) Abbots Ripton (Jan 1876) Radstock (Aug 1876) Heeley (Nov 1876) Morpeth (Mar 1877) Tay Bridge (Dec 1879) ‡ 1880s Burscough Junction (Jan 1880) Wennington Junction (Aug 1880) Inverythan (Nov 1882) Penistone (Jul 1884) ‡ Penistone (Jan 1885) Hexthorpe (Sep 1887) ‡ Penistone (Mar 1889) Armagh (Jun 1889) ‡ 1890s Norton Fitzwarren (Nov 1890) Norwood Junction (May 1891) Esholt Junction (Jun 1892) Thirsk (Nov 1892) Llantrisant (Aug 1893) Chelford (Dec 1894) St Neots (Nov 1895) Snowdon (Apr 1896) Menheniot (Feb 1897) Welshampton (Jun 1897) Penistone (Oct 1897) Menheniot (Nov 1897) Potters Bar (Mar 1898) St Johns (Mar 1898) Wellingborough (Sep 1898) Wrawby Junction (Oct 1898) Potters Bar (May 1899) ‡ indicates railway accidents and incidents resulting in at least 20 fatalities 1900–1999 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Dee Bridge disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dee_Bridge_disaster) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dee_Bridge_disaster?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.