Godmanchester Chinese Bridge
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Godmanchester Chinese Bridge is a landmark of the town of Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire, England). It is a pedestrian bridge that spans the River Great Ouse and is, as the name suggests, built in an ostensibly Chinese style. The original was constructed in 1827 to designs by the architect Gallier, but it fell into a bad condition and was replaced with a replica by the local council in 1960.
Local legend has it that when the Chinese Bridge was built without the use of nails or any other fixings. A number of years later, an architect applied to the council for permission to deconstruct the bridge to discover how exactly this had been accomplished. This being done, they tried to reconstruct the bridge again, but found that they could not get it to support itself under its own weight! Today the Chinese Bridge is held together by nails.
The origins of the bridge are somewhat unusual. "Chinese Chippendale" had been a fashion of the mid-18th century, a time when the town was building a mansion for the Receiver General of Huntingdonshire by the river. Island Hall had included a rather smaller Chinese bridge, linking it to an ornamental island. It seems likely that this served as the inspiration for the public bridge several decades later — its white timbers are also in the Chinese Chippendale style.
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