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Maidenhead Railway Bridge today; Maidenhead Road Bridge behind

Maidenhead Railway Bridge as Turner saw it in 1844

Maidenhead Railway Bridge (aka Maidenhead Viaduct) is a railway bridge carrying the main line of the Great Western Railway over the River Thames in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. The bridge was designed by the Great Western's famous engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and it was completed in 1838. The railway is carried across the river on two brick arches, which at the time of building were the widest and flattest in the world. Each span is 128 feet (39 m), with a rise of only 24 feet (7 m). The Thames towpath passes under the right-hand arch (facing upstream), which is also known as the Sounding Arch, because of its spectacular echo.

It has been claimed that the board of the Great Western Railway did not believe that the arches would stay up under the weight of the trains and ordered Brunel to leave the wooden formwork used to contruct the arches in place. However, Brunel simply lowered the formwork slightly so that it had no structural effect, but appeared to be in place. Later, when the formwork was washed away in floods, but the bridge remained, the strength of the arches was accepted.

As built, Maidenhead Railway Bridge carried two lines of Brunel's broad gauge track. Subsequently the bridge has been widened, and now carries the four lines of standard gauge track that make up the Great Western Main Line out of London Paddington Station.

Maidenhead Railway Bridge features in Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway, painted by Turner in 1844 and now in the National Gallery, London

The forthcoming Crossrail development shall see the long-delayed overhead electrification of the Great Western line between Paddington and Maidenhead. This construction work had been set to require a temporary construction depot to be created immediately next to the bridge in Guards Club Park on the Berkshire side of the bridge, but this decision has subsequently been reversed, though the Bridge itself shall obviously still undergo some changes in order to accommodate the catenary. The latest Crossrail Environmental Statement states:

"The OHLE (Overhead Line Equipment) requires that supporting posts be founded on the bridge structure. These will be positioned so as not to disrupt the symmetry of the bridge. Three sets of masts will be fixed at the bridge supports and a further two sets will be fixed at the far ends of the bridge. The masts will be fixed such that they may be removed in the future without damaging the bridge as it stands today."

The report also states:

It is proposed that the OHLE over Maidenhead railway bridge will use masts with wires suspended from cantilevers, since these will be visually lighter structures than the gantries to be used along other parts of the route. The masts will however, have a significant adverse landscape impact: they will affect important views along the river and the character of the river corridor; they will affect the setting of the Riverside Conservation Area; and they will affect the setting of the listed railway bridge and the setting of the adjacent Grade I listed road bridge.

• Crossings of the River Thames

Next crossing upstream	River Thames	Next crossing downstream
Maidenhead Bridge	Maidenhead Railway Bridge Grid reference: SU901810	M4 Thames Bridge

• Newcomen Society information
• Structurae information (NB This site labels the rail bridge as "Maidenhead Bridge" and Maidenhead Bridge as "Maidenhead Road Bridge)

Coordinates: 51.52074° N 0.70278° W