The Iron Bridge is the first arch…

The Iron Bridge is the first arch bridge in the world to be made out of cast iron, a material which had previously been far too expensive to use for large structures.

The new blast furnace nearby has lowered the cost and so has encouraged local engineers and architects to solve a long-standing problem of a crossing over the river.

Wilkinson is also a major shareholder in the Iron Bridge, encouraging the other shareholders to make the bridge entirely from iron, though it is Abraham Darby III, rather than he, who actually builds it.

Begun in 1775 and completed in 1779, the Iron Bridge crosses the River Severn at the Ironbridge Gorge, by the village of Ironbridge, in Shropshire, England.