The picture on this page is taken from an engraving made in 1846 of the Long Bridge over the River Severn at Newtown.
This stone bridge was built around 1827, ten years before Victoria became Queen, to replace an older wooden bridge nearby. The bridge as seen here was later found to be too narrow for horse-drawn vehicles and pedestrians to cross at the same time. There was even a fatal accident on the bridge in 1853.

In 1857 the Long Bridge was made wider by adding footways on either side which were carried on cast-iron arches. There is a photograph on another of this series of pages of the bridge after the addition of the new metalwork.
But there were still problems after the widening of the bridge, because people crossing the river had to walk on cast-iron plates which became very slippery in wet weather - and a lot of Victorians fell over !
It was not until 1924 that the slippery metal was safely covered with stone slabs.

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