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Navigator Drive, SOUTHALL, UB2 4UU

This crossing is on the approach to the Three Bridges if you were heading south.

The Three Bridges is a unique transport intersection, designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It was to be his last project before he died on 15th September 1859 just two months after its completion. The correct name for it should be Windmill Bridge - named after the Southall Mill, which stood on the south-western side of the original canal bridge which was first built in the 1790's when the canal was cut. J.M.W. Turner painted this windmill in 1806. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_014.jpg Known locally as Three Bridges, the name is a misnomer as there are in fact only two bridges - the road bridge over the canal and the canal bridge over the railway. The canal is conveyed through an 8 ft cast-iron trough over the railway, with the road on a brick & cast-iron girder bridge above. The Three Bridges was constructed as a result of the Brentford Branch line being built to connect the Great Western Railway at Southall to the docks at Brentford. Which was opened in July 1859. Brunel chose the location for the Three Bridges intersection where the canal was already crossed by Windmill Lane. The Three Bridges has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by English Heritage. There is a 3 ton weight and 6' 6" width restrictions on the road bridge.

Narrow road bridge crossing the Grand Union Canal, at a spot called Three Bridges.

The section of the Grand Union Canal through Hanwell Locks and Norwood from the River Thames at Brentford was opened in 1794. It was the first section of what was originally called the Grand Junction Canal. Its purpose was to provide a new, shorter and quicker transport route between London and Birmingham by connecting with a network of canals at Braunston near Daventry. When the canal reached Braunston in 1805 it cut 60 miles off the shortest alternative route. Hanwell Locks became very busy as narrowboats and barges jostled to pass through quickly on their way to and from the industrial North, the manufacturing centres of the Midlands, London and the Thames at Brentford. William Jessop, the canal's Chief Engineer, had foreseen the bottlenecks queued to pass through the locks and on the Grand Junction Canal he built locks wide enough to take two narrowboats at the same time, or one wider barge. The first of the Hanwell Flight of locks lies just ahead. See also http://canalrivertrustwaterfront.org.uk/heritage/guide-pos3-flights-of-fancy-hanwell-locks-london/

Road over canal over railway. The canal is at the level of the surrounding ground, the railway is in a cutting. See also Image and Image

This bridge carries the A4127 Windmill Lane across the Grand Union Canal.