Ironbridge
Where Iron Crossed the River
Portrait
Abraham Darby smelted iron with coke rather than charcoal at Coalbrookdale in 1709, removing the limit that forest supply had placed on production, and his grandson cast the world's first iron bridge across the Severn gorge in 1779 — built without bolts, using carpentry joints because nobody had done it before. The valley is now ten museums along five kilometres.
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