Victoria Bridge

Lithograph. Victoria Bridge built on the line of the Durham Junction Railway over the Valley of the River Wear. Drawn by J W Carmichael. Lithographed by G Hawkins, Junior. Printed by Day and Haghe, Lithographers to the Queen. Published by Currie and Bowman, 33 Collingwood Street, Newcastle. (c1838).

This lithographic print was based on John Wilson Carmichael’s depiction of Victoria Bridge over the River Wear. The bridge was built by the Durham Junction Railway and completed on 28th June 1838, the day of Queen Victoria's coronation.

The viaduct, near Washington in County Durham, sits confidently in its landscape, with none of the disruption and destruction occasioned by railway building and only a hint of smoke to betray the passing train.

At the water’s edge locals are at work, while two women stop for a conversation. Figures like these were characteristic of traditional landscape paintings, but they soon became typical of depictions of railways too, helping to show them comfortably assimilated in pastoral settings.

The bridge was based on the Roman Alcantara bridge in Extramadura, Spain. The use of classical designs was a way of making railways seem a longstanding feature of the landscape.

G Hawkins Junior copied Carmichael's original illustration onto stone for printing by William Day and Louis Haghe and it was published by the Newcastle firm of Currie & Bowman.