'The Stockton and Darlington Railway Suspension Bridge', c 1830.

Engraving by W Miller after an original drawing by J Dixon, showing the bridge erected over the River Tees near Stockton by Samuel Brown, RN. The bridge, which was opened on 27th December 1830, was the first suspension bridge to be built for the purpose of supporting a railway line. The Stockton to Darlington Railway, built by George Stephenson, was the world's first public steam railway line when it opened in 1825. Its succes led to an explosion of railway building and the rapid development of a rail transport network acros Britain