As Chepstow prepares to mark the 200th birthday of its bridge over the Wye, Martin Wade speaks to one of those organising the commemorations and finds out why he thinks this engineering marvel deserves to be celebrated worldwide.

JOHN Burrows has spent many years researching the story of Chepstow’s bridge which delicately links the English and Welsh sides of the river Wye.

He believes there are many reasons the bridge should be as well-known as the Clifton suspension bridge or Tower Bridge and should eventually be given World Heritage status.

Designed by John Urpeth Rastrick, its creator is not as well-known as 19th Century engineers like Brunel and Stephenson.

Although he was advised by two great engineers of the time, John Rennie and Thomas Telford, Rastrick was clearly was a man of great ability. “He built the first steam engine in the USA and made engines for the rail pioneer Richard Trevithick” says John.

He was also a chairman of the judges at the famous Rainhill Trials, which was won by the first steam engine to run scheduled services in the world. He also was responsible for building the London-Brighton line. Clearly this was a man at the cutting edge of engineering.

Rastrick had to overcome massive forces of nature no other bridge designer would in spanning the Wye - a river with one of the highest tidal ranges in the world.

John says: “The river changes directions four times a day, the current is very strong and it can rise in as little as five hours.” Other bridges would not have to cope with such a battering.

The Severn which has a higher tidal range is crossed by bridges which are built with far more modern techniques and materials and constructed a century and a half later.

The plaque at the south end of the bridge testifies to the tidal challenge facing Rastrick: “The Wye Bridge in Chepstow spans the second highest tidal range in the world which can exceed 14 metres (46 feet) in a single day.”

The bridge has also stood the test of time. It has carried road traffic across the Wye from the day it was opened to the present day. The main A48 road between Newport and Gloucester ran across the bridge and was only relieved of this when a new road bridge was opened downstream alongside Chepstow railway bridge in 1988. As the volume of road traffic grew, especially following the Second World War, it bore the growing weight of a burden it was never designed to carry. Rastrick’s design needed only some strengthening to help it cope.

Vehicles still use the bridge to cross between Chepstow and Tutshill and it has carried traffic for 50 years longer than its older counterpart, Ironbridge in Shropshire, which now only allows pedestrians.

As well as being long-lasting, the bridge is good-looking. Rastrick took the advice of famed engineer Thomas Telford in using arches to span the Wye. John says: “The largest arch is in the centre, then they become progressively smaller, giving a gradient of 1:24. It rises very slowly, and makes it a very beautiful-looking bridge.

“The lattice work too gives the crossing a lighter feel.” He adds. “It’s perhaps the most elegant Regency bridge in the world”.

It was built at a key time in bridge-building. For thousands of years the technology used to cross bodies of water had not changed greatly. A Roman would recognise the techniques used by bridge-builders 1,500 years later. But with the coming of the industrial revolution and iron-working, bridge-building changed forever. The first bridge made of the metal at Ironbridge was made in 1779, but the decade between 1810 and 1820 marked a high-point of iron bridge-making. By the end of the decade, the suspension bridge was born which is still the method of choice to cross long and difficult spaces.

The fact that it was built at this time is a reason why the bridge is often overlooked John believes. “Within four years of its construction, most major bridges were suspension bridges, so the attention of writers and the wider media moved to the likes of the Clifton and Tower Bridge.” He adds the older stone and wood bridge, built 500 years before the present one, was more written about.

It was a time of dizzying progress and constant change. No sooner had one bridge of record-breaking length been built then another would take its place. It is small wonder the spotlight moved from the Chepstow Bridge: “Many bridges would not have their record broken in 500 years, in that decade it changed five times.”

Chepstow Bridge still is the world’s largest iron arch road bridge from the first 50 years (1780-1830) of iron and steel construction. But its opening was upstaged twice, ensuring its story never quite made the front pages.

The then largest iron bridge, built at Vauxhall in London, was opened just two months before the Chepstow Bridge. Then as now, the eyes of the London press were fixed on events close to their doorstep.

In a further clash with events, the Duke of Wellington visited Gloucester as the bridge opened. The Gloucester Journal led on the story of his stay rather than the opening of the bridge. His fame undimmed just a year after the Battle of Waterloo, it was the misfortune of the bridge and its builders to come up against him in another battle for the attention of the press.

The name of the bridge hasn’t helped either says John: “It is a mistake to call it the ‘Old Wye Bridge’. It should be called the ‘Chepstow Bridge’”. The term came to be used especially after the modern road bridge over the Wye was opened in 1988.

Rastrick would never build another bridge again. He concentrated fully on the growing railway industry and as he had no need to advertise himself as a bridge-builder, there would be no stories of great engineering feats, no pictures of him standing heroically next his works, as Brunel would do. Chepstow would be his first and last bridge.

The 200th birthday of the bridge will be celebrated in grand style. The original opening ceremony will be re-enacted by a procession to start from Beaufort Square at 1pm

There will be fair on the riverside and music from the bandstand. Vintage cars will cross the bridge and fireworks and music will bring the festival to a close.

The plaque on the bridge marking the bridge’s opening in 1816 tells how the “elegant cast-iron bridge you see was opened with great ceremony in 1816”. It’s fitting that great ceremony and celebration will mark the passing of 200 years since that day.