 Towards the end of his career , Harrison worked on two bridges in Chester . At the time the only road crossing over the River Dee was the medieval Old Dee Bridge , which was becoming inadequate for the increasing volume of traffic . In 1825 Harrison added three new arches on the upstream side of the bridge , and built a footway that was corbeled @-@ out , also on the upstream side . Meanwhile , negotiations had been underway for a much more substantial bridge . In 1825 an Act of Parliament was passed for the Grosvenor Bridge to be built downstream from the Old Dee Bridge . To provide access to the new bridge , properties , including a church , had to be demolished , and Harrison was involved in designing the new approach to the bridge , which was named Grosvenor Street . He also prepared three different plans for the bridge , one in iron , the others in stone ; one of the stone bridges had three arches , the other a single arch spanning 200 feet ( 61 m ) . The single @-@ arch bridge would be the longest single @-@ arch stone bridge in the world at the time , and there were doubts about its stability . Harrison 's design was supported by the engineers James Trubshaw and John Rennie , and Trubshaw made a limestone model of the bridge to confirm its stability . By this time Harrison was aged over 80 , and in 1826 he resigned from the commission . Later that year the design was costed by Thomas Telford , and the town council subsequently accepted the design . Trubshaw was in charge of the construction , with Jesse Hartley as his clerk @-@ of @-@ works . The foundation stone was laid in 1827 by the Earl of Grosvenor ( after whose family the bridge was named ) , and work began the following year . It was formally opened in 1832 by the future Queen Victoria , and traffic began to cross it the following year . The total cost of the bridge was just under £ 50 @,@ 000 ( equivalent to £ 4 @,@ 300 @,@ 000 in 2015 ) . Harrison did not live to see it completed , as he died in 1829 . 
