It’s the line to Edinburgh or to London, depending on your viewpoint.  Opened in 1850 by the Newcastle and Berwick Railway company, the Royal Border Bridge spanned an important gap in Britain’s East Coast Main Line, making non-stop services from London to Edinburgh possible for the first time.

 

The old Berwick Bridge and Royal Tweed Bridge simplified by morning mist to a pattern of lines and curves

 

Before the opening of the railway viaduct there were only two ways across the river at Berwick, the narrow roadway of the 17th century Berwick Bridge or a ferry.  The railway arrived both at Tweedmouth on the south bank of the river and at Berwick on the north bank in1847.  Network Rail’s official history says that while the Royal Border Bridge was under construction passengers were transferred between the two stations by horse drawn carriage.  Local history proudly maintains that boatmen from Spittal (also on the south bank) ferried passengers across the river; maybe a business plan that never quite worked out.

 

A post for Debbie Smyth’s photo challenge Lines.