Kingsferry Bridge

The Kingsferry Bridge is a combined road and railway vertical-lift bridge connecting the Isle of Sheppey to mainland Kent in South East England. It was designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson, and built by John Howard, with Dorman Long and Sir William Arrol & Co. The bridge is a 7 span structure with central lifting span.The first bridge on the site had been a railway bascule bridge built in 1860 as part of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. This was replaced in 1904 by a Scherzer-type bascule bridge. On 17 December 1922, the Norwegian cargo ship collided with the bridge, damaging it so badly that it took ten months to repair and re-open the bridge. It was eventually replaced in turn by the present bridge.Swale railway station is at the southern end of the bridge which is regarded by Network Rail as a "railway crossing". The A249 was carried on the bridge until the opening of a new fixed Sheppey crossing in 2006.Although the railway line carried over the bridge is 3rd-rail electrified, there is no electrification over the bridge itself. Electric trains coast over the bridge to overcome this gap in the electrification.