Sonning Backwater Bridges

Sonning Backwater Bridges
View along the main Sonning Backwater Bridge towards the French Horn hotel.
Coordinates51°28′36″N 0°54′57″W / 51.47667°N 0.91583°W / 51.47667; -0.91583
CarriesMinor road (B478)
CrossesRiver Thames
LocaleSonning Eye
Characteristics
MaterialConcrete
History
Opened1986
Location
Map

Sonning Backwater Bridges are the road bridges across the first two of three branches of the Thames at Sonning Eye, Oxfordshire, England.

Built in 1986 to replace older wooden structures, one bridge spans a main weir stream – traditionally named the backwater – and the other spans the splayed under-mill outlets from the millrace of the island known as Sonning Eye.

These two bridges are paired with the follow-on, much older, brick arches of Sonning Bridge over the navigation channel which thereby enters Berkshire – specifically Sonning. Together, all these bridges form a near perfectly straight line. All three including their two very short causeways or viaducts between them form the longest structure to cross the river below Wallingford, Oxfordshire and above Windsor Railway Bridge.