Then and now with an extra difference [DotD 22.04.20]

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Must be at least 100 years and further apart than is usual for this sort of comparison.

[CyclingSid]

I stand to be corrected but I think the earlier picture is of a bow string bridge. Was this an invention of Brunel?

[Electric train]

I stand to be corrected but I think the earlier picture is of a bow string bridge. Was this an invention of Brunel?

Don't think so, from the tinter web https://www.inventionandtech.com/content/whipple-truss-bridge

"The Whipple Bowstring Truss Bridge was built from a design patented in 1841 by Squire Whipple. Whipple was the first person to understand the stresses in truss members and he developed the first theoretical formula to calculate stresses in the articulated truss. His bowstring truss was the first to use cast iron for compression and wrought iron for tension membranes.
The structure originally crossed the Cayadutta Creek in Johnstown, New York.  It is one of five truss bridges built by Whipple in eastern New York and it is possibly the oldest. The City of Johnstown donated the bridge to Whipple's alma mater, Union College, in 1979.
Though the design and details of the bridge were patented, Whipple never was able to collect royalties. The State of New York adopted "Whipple's Patent Iron Arch Truss Bridge" as the standard for its canals but evaded royalty payments by declaring that the erection of the bridges was "for the public good."

[grahame]

I stand to be corrected but I think the earlier picture is of a bow string bridge. Was this an invention of Brunel?

Maybe, but the earlier picture is not the original bridge at the location - even in that picture 100 years back it's already second generation.

[Oxonhutch]

Right hand road traffic in the old photo and something about the houses. Is the first bridge actually on the Continent - possibly France?

[grahame]

Right hand road traffic in the old photo and something about the houses. Is the first bridge actually on the Continent - possibly France?

No - England (and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) territory  - the line over that bridge was GWR that 100 years ago!). In those days of minimal road traffic (and most of that with one horsepower traction), pulling diagonally across the road to drop off / pick up good was probably pretty safe and standard; even to this day, I suspect your Amazon or grocery delivery arriving in a white van could pull over diagonally.

[bradshaw]

Is the right hand picture of the notorious bridge on the Newquay branch, where it passed over the old A30, before the Roche bypass was built?

[grahame]

Is the right hand picture of the notorious bridge on the Newquay branch, where it passed over the old A30, before the Roche bypass was built?

Almost - it's more on the hcnarb yauqweN on the 03A.  The left hand picture is the Fish Bridge at the bottom of Caen Hill near Devizes.  The pair stuck me as "then" and "how it might have looked [now]" had the Devizes branch remained open.