The Great Western Railway Usk bridge is a crossing of the River Usk in Newport city centre, Wales. It carries the Great Western Main Line across the river in an east—west direction and is maintainted by Network Rail.
The original wooden structure was constructed by the South Wales Railway in 1848, but just as the final arch was being put into place on May 31, a heated bolt ignited chemicals used to preserve the wood and a catastophic fire destroyed most of the structure.
To prevent a recurrence of the fire, the renowned railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel invented the now-common bow-string -shaped girders to replace the wood sections.
In 1888 the bridge was replaced with one made of stone, and by 1911 it had been widened to four lines.