A view of the Intersection Bridge where the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Helens_and_Runcorn_Gap_Railway" class="extiw" title="w:St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway">St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway</a> crossed over the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway" class="extiw" title="w:Liverpool and Manchester Railway">Liverpool and Manchester Railway</a> near <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton,_St_Helens" class="extiw" title="w:Sutton, St Helens">Sutton, St Helens</a>, the first bridge of one railway over another in the world. <br> The St Helens and Runcorn Gap railway was primarily a freight line, designed to take coal traffic from near St Helens south to the River Mersey.  It opened in 1833, engineered by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Blacker_Vignoles" class="extiw" title="w:Charles Blacker Vignoles">Charles Blacker Vignoles</a> who had previously worked on the Liverpool and Manchester line.  There was also an east/north junction just to the east between the two lines, called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Helens_Junction_railway_station" class="extiw" title="w:St Helens Junction railway station">St Helens Junction</a>.  Here a coal train on the St Helens line passes above a locomotive on the Liverpool to Manchester line which would appear to be Stephenson's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northumbrian_(locomotive)" class="extiw" title="w:Northumbrian (locomotive)">Northumbrian</a></i> or one of its sisters.  The engine drawing the coal wagons may be intended as a representation of Ericsson and Braithwaite's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty_(locomotive)" class="extiw" title="w:Novelty (locomotive)">Novelty</a></i>, with its distinctive upright boiler.<br>This plate was included as an extra by Ackermann &amp; Co in bound editions of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Talbot_Bury" class="extiw" title="w:Thomas Talbot Bury">Bury</a>'s <i>Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway</i> from 1832 onwards; it was also available separately, priced at 4s 6d.<br>The St Helens line closed in the mid 1980s, and the track was lifted.  The final remains of the bridge deck were removed in February 2012 <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/coffey_time/9658847.Time_to_mark_vanished_world_first_for_St_Helens/">[1]</a>, pending electrification of the Liverpool and Manchester line.
<bdi><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q65012821" class="extiw" title="d:Q65012821"><span title="English engraver">S.G. Hughes</span></a>
</bdi>
T.T. Bury (revised edition 1833), <i><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bury%27s_Coloured_Views_on_the_Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway,_1831" title="Category:Bury's Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1831">Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway</a></i>.  London: Ackermann &amp; Co; additional plate A.<br>This scan/photograph from the archive at <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.edgehill.co.uk">edgehill.co.uk</a> curated by Metal, from a print donated by Eric Shenton. (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.edgehillstation.co.uk/resources/view-on-the-intersection-bridge-on-the-line-of-the-st-helens-and-runcorn-g/">description page</a>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.edgehillstation.co.uk/uploads/sizer-cache/0382b5e7ddc6232931858535271339d64e7c0ee7.jpg">image</a>)