North Bridge

North Bridge was designed in Victorian Gothic style by brothers John and James Fraser of Leeds. John had considerable experience of railway bridge design. Two 160 ft spans of semi-elliptical arch ribs are supported by stone piers with ecclesiastical style buttresses, carrying a 60 ft wide roadway. There are lancets in the spandrels. The parapets are richly decorated with quatre-foil piercings with central Maltese crosses and tri-foil pattern railings above with a crenellated top rail. The mainly cast iron parapet ribs have a wrought iron central section of 56 ft. The central pier stands 75 ft high and the bridge was built 11 ft higher than its predecessor so that the Halifax and Ovenden…

The bridge was opened on 25 October 1871 amid scenes of confusion as local people, given a half-day holiday, swarmed over the bridge well in advance of the official opening by the mayor. The mayor and corporation and the borough's MP, together with the Halifax Artillery and Rifle Volunteers and a detachment of the 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry, formed a procession at the town hall at about 3 pm. The police had cleared some space at the southern end of the bridge, but by the time an advance party of yeomanry reached the bridge the crowds had reoccupied it. Twenty dragoons were drawn up across the southern entrance of the bridge to hold the crowds back. A ceremony was then held which included…