Cobden Bridge

Cobden Bridge is a major road bridge in Southampton, UK. It crosses the River Itchen joining the suburbs of St Denys and Bitterne Park. It forms part of the A3035. The present bridge dates from 1928, but there has been a bridge on this site since 1883.

The first bridge (1883)
The National Liberal Land Company purchased the land that is now Bitterne Park in 1882, and began developing it for residential purposes. An iron bridge was constructed across the Itchen to St Denys, thus improving access and vastly increasing the value of the land.

The bridge was opened with the promise to be "free to the public for ever" and was originally called the "Cobden Free Bridge". This was in clear competition to Northam Bridge further south, which at that time was a toll bridge.

The bridge was named Cobden Bridge after Richard Cobden, a prominent Liberal politician. Cobden was notable as a campaigner for free trade, and formed the Anti-Corn Law League. The bridge was opened on 27 June 1883 by Thorold Rogers, another Liberal politician and friend of Cobden, who was also chairman of the Land Company.

The original bridge had five spans of 72 ft with headway below the bridge of 15 ft at high water and 27 ft at low water. The bridge was supported by iron piers, cylindrical in shape and 7 ft in diameter below the water and 4 ft above it. The two centre piers extended 23 ft below the water level and the outer two were 15 ft deep. The abutments were made of concrete and although the piers were made of cast iron, they were also filled with concrete. The piers were topped with two lattice girders 5 ft deep and divided into 5 ft-long panels, set 28 ft apart from one another. The bridge carried a 16 ft-wide carriageway with a 6 ft-wide footway on both sides. In all the bridge contained 287 ST of wrought iron and 191 ST of cast iron. The engineer was Corbet Woodall of Westminster.

The bridge was the site of several clashes between local gangs soon after opening.

The second bridge (1928)
A new five arch concrete bridge, vastly superior to its predecessor, was built between 1926 and 1928, to better cope with the increases in size and volume of traffic.

The new bridge was opened on 25 October 1928 by Wilfred Ashley, then Minister of Transport.