Bridge ca 1853 Bridge ca 1853
The earliest photograph of Queens' College, and possibly the earliest photograph of any part of the University of Cambridge (unless you can prove me wrong).
Photograph taken by Thomas Craddock, while he was an undergraduate at Queens', 1851-56, while photography was in its infancy. A note on the reverse written about 1930 records:
The negatives were prepared sensitized paper, which, when fixed, were waxed to render them transparent. The exposure took 5 to 10 minutes. It was impossible to photograph trees in windy weather. Printing has not much altered.
This must be the original wooden bridge of 1749-50. The pedestrian decking is stepped rather than sloped, a characteristic shared with the model of the bridge thought to be the architect's design model of 1749. When the bridge was rebuilt in 1867, the decking was made sloped.
Look closely and you can see coach-screws at the joints, on the outside elevation of the bridge. These would not have been apparent to people passing across the bridge looking at the inner elevations. The present bridge has nuts and bolts at the joints, which pass right through from one side to the other. I will leave you to finish this line of reasoning.