Engine Arm Aqueduct

Canal-over-canal aqueducts are rare, but Birmingham has more than anywhere else - and the Engine Arm Aqueduct is the finest.

This single-span iron aqueduct is elegant in concept and appearance. Its ornamentation quite disguises the fact that the Engine Arm, which it carries over the Birmingham Canal Main Line, is a very short branch primarily intended as a water feeder rather than a navigable canal.

Waterway secret

Designed by Thomas Telford, the aqueduct bears comparison with his nearby Galton Bridge. This beautiful structure carries the Great Western Railway across the canal in similar fashion. But while Galton Bridge is widely known and appreciated as a landmark of industrial architecture, the Engine Arm remains a secret known only to boaters, towpath walkers and cyclists.

And the name? The Engine Arm is so-called because of the Boulton & Watt beam engine that once pumped water from the Engine Arm to the Birmingham Canal for over a century, itself a piece of engineering history.

Other canal-over-canal aqueducts include the Caldon Canal's Hazlehurst Aqueduct and the Trent & Mersey's Red Bull Aqueduct, both near Stoke-on-Trent; and the unique Barton Swing Aqueduct, Manchester.

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