Who built ironbridge?

Answer 1

The Iron Bridge in Shropshire was the world's first cast iron bridge. It was built by a partnership between Wilkinson from Broseley, Pritchard from Shrewsbury and most famously Abraham Darby III, the grandson of Abraham Darby I, the man who discovered the secret of smelting iron with coke rather than charcoal. This innovation is said to have started the Industrial Revolution.

The bridge was built both as a crossing over the River Severn, as ferries were the only option for the growing industries, and also as a demonstration of the skills of the Coalbrookdale Company to build structures out of iron.

It attracted industrialists and tourists from across the world, keen to see this remarkable new structure being built and in place once finished.

It was opened as toll bridge, with only the ferry men being exempt from paying the toll.

They had lost their work as a result of the bridge.

The Iron Bridge is now cared for by English Heritage, and the series of 10 Ironbridge Gorge Museums tells the story of the World Heritage Site that surrounds the bridge.