Walking towards the Blue Bridge in York, all one hears about is the Blue Bridge. Three youngsters hunch their shoulders and fling their arms as they scutter across it, up and then down, crying ‘Blue Bridge! Blue Bridge! Blue Bridge!’; and a man on a telephone takes momentary pause, vacillating to a stop as he queries whether the Blue Bridge provides a suitable meeting place for his hoped-for companion.
The Blue Bridge crosses the River Foss at its confluence with the River Ouse. It serves as a means of access to the city centre down the east bank of the Ouse from Fulford and Fishergate; or alternately, coming away from the city centre, as a means of easy escape. If the Blue Bridge was not there, something would have to be there in its place.
York residents may struggle with water; and the next bridge up, Skeldergate Bridge, has sometimes been the site of mischief or worse; but everyone who has any feeling for the city respects and thinks fondly upon the Blue Bridge.
The first bridge built here appeared in 1738, as a small wooden drawbridge painted blue. In 1767 it was replaced by a fixed stone bridge, then in 1792 by another drawbridge made of wood, as the city dwellers of the age evidently lacked in constancy and long-lasting building supplies. In 1858 another replacement saw the birth of an iron lift bridge. And at last we arrived at the Blue Bridge as it stands today. Although the date of its erection is disputed, with some sources citing 1895, and others maintaining 1929-30, the extant visual evidence strongly suggests the latter date is correct.
1858 saw two cannon positioned at either end of the Blue Bridge. These had been captured during the Siege of Sevastopol which took place between 1854-1855, at the culmination of the Crimean War. Constituting York’s Crimean War Memorial, the metal guns had been in the Museum Gardens, before being moved with much fanfare on 5 November.
The guns were 36-pounders, 8 feet and 3 inches long, and weighing just under 3,000 kilograms. Alas in 1942, they were removed and melted down to help with World War II. This is undoubtedly the source of the apocryphal saying regarding the Blue Bridge, that ‘It won by one war and lost by t’other’.
Still cannon or none, the Blue Bridge is what is hot in York at the present moment. There are other things in York which are blue: The Blue Bicycle restaurant, for instance, and a preponderance of pairs of jeans. But the Blue Bridge is preeminent in its field, and sure to remain a valued part of the landscape, a bright beacon, a cosy thing as summer passes to autumn then winter.
