By the early 1860s, over 100,000 tons of iron ore was being shipped annually from West Cumberland to Scotland. The Solway Junction Railway was built to carry this traffic without it having to pass through Carlisle.

To avoid Carlisle, a spectacular viaduct was built over the Solway from Bowness-on-Solway to Annan in Scotland. This linked the Maryport and Carlisle Railway at Brayton Junction with the Caledonian Railway at Annan and Kirtlebridge.

The Viaduct opened in September 1869 for goods, and for passengers in July 1870.

		Problems with the viaduct first appeared just six years after the opening of the route, but disaster struck in the winter of 1880/1881. The rivers Esk and Eden had frozen in the upper reaches of the Firth, and when the thaw came, great chunks of ice as much as 27 yards square and 6 foot thick were carried into the bridge’s piers on an ebb tide, travelling at 10-15 mph. Fortunately there had been no loss of life although 45 of the 193 piers and 37 girders had collapsed. It was to take more than three years to rebuild the structure.
Pictures of the 1881 Damage

By 1895 the Caledonian Railway had taken over the line and for a brief period this spectacular crossing carried goods, passengers and livestock daily.