War Diaries Talk

Weldon Trestle Bridge

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    I've been tagging the 406th Field Company R.E., and there is mention of a Weldon Trestle Bridge. Finally managed to find this website http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2011/12/uk-military-bridging-floating-equipment/ with both a diagram and a photograph from World War I, although it's on the Tigris River, of this type of trestle.

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  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Cynthia here is another link about the ‘Weldon Trestles’. 2 paragraphs of interest in the article:

    "In addition to the pontoon wagons a bridging unit always included wagons carrying adjustable timber trestles known as "Weldon trestles." These were an important part of the equipment, being used to form the piers of the bridge in shallow water near the bank where the pontoons could not float, or to make a landing-stage when the pontoons were used as rafts on a wide river, or without the pontoons to bridge the narrow streams or dry gaps".

    " It is significant that of the Victoria Crosses awarded to officers and men of the Royal Engineers in the World War more than half were won by acts of conspicuous gallantry in the construction and demolition of bridges. (E. N. S.)

    http://www.theodora.com/encyclopedia/b2/military_bridging.html See 2nd Paragraph under military bridging. See also last paragraph of the article regarding Victoria Crosses".

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Thanks, Marie. Interesting to read that the British army was unusual in that it didn't have any specialized bridging units. I can't see any of the illustrations, though.

    I didn't see this article. Google assumed that because I'm in the U.S. I wanted to see trestles on an old U.S. railroad in a town called Weldon, North Carolina!

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  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Hi Cynthia, There were no illustrations in the link I posted.

    There is however another article regarding Erection of Bridges in WW. which contain very interesting photographs.
    http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2011/11/uk-military-bridging-wwi/

    Interesting to see photographs of some of the places that are tagged in the diaries, contained in this article.

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    It is interesting to see those photos! You can see how much work it was to build a bridge, yet the diaries I've tagged always seem to include bridge building as if it were no more work than unloading a wagon!

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