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MarkUK
	Date Posted：2026-01-01 08:42:52 1 January 1781 - The World's First Iron Bridge Opened. In 1776 a proposal to construct a wholly metal bridge across the Severn Gorge between the Shropshire villages of Benthall and Madeley was put before Parliament. The necessary Act was passed with the the work for the design going to Thomas Pritchard and the actual casting and construction to Abraham Darby of the Coalbrookdale Ironworks, Shropshire. Work began in 1777 and although the river was spanned as early as July 1779 the bridge was not formally opened to traffic until New Year's Day 1781. It is 100 ft long weighing 378 tons. Such was the fame of the construction that the town that grew up around the two villages was renamed Ironbridge. Closed to road traffic in 1934 it remains in use for pedestrians.
majorshrapnel	#1
	Re：Reply Topic Date Posted：2026-01-01 02:19:45 It's an amazing design and construction with kind of dovetail joints. The last time I was there a number of American engineers had come to see it. People in the modern age wondered just how it was built, how they got those large and very heavy struts into place but some years ago somebody came by a painting that had been done of it in mid construction, which showed the wooden cranes they built.
MarkUK	#2
	Re：Reply Topic Date Posted：2026-01-02 08:51:07 2 January 1892 - Sir George Airy died. Mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal 1835-81. Noted for his work on planetary orbits and for calculating the density of the Earth. He also responsible for establishing the prime meridian running through Greenwich which in 1884 was adopted as the international Prime Meridian dividing the globe into east and west and establishing a standard measurement of time - GMT as the standard with the globe plus or minus x number of hours ahead or behind GMT.
majorshrapnel	#3
	Re：Reply Topic Date Posted：2026-01-02 09:30:45 GMT is Greenwich Mean Time. You can visit the observatory where the line that separates east from west runs through it and they have a line along the ground showing it. So you can go and put your right leg in the western hemisphere and your left leg in the eastern hemisphere.
MarkUK	#4
	Re：Reply Topic Date Posted：2026-01-02 01:06:00 With a smartphone you ought to be able to do this anywhere along the Meridian as it bisects eastern England. It runs through the centre of Louth, Lincolnshire for instance.