**Please note that general GZ is down a set of stairs, and thus not wholey accessible to those who cannot traverse stairs. However, if the Cathedral Visitor Centre is open (entrance on Cateaton Street) you can get fairly close from the inside basement, which is accessible, BUT will not provide you with the answer to the question.**
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To claim this easy VIRTUAL cache you must please open the gate (it can be very stiff, latch on rear, push well - it's not locked) and head down the steps to:
1. take a photo of yourself, something identifiably yours, or your GPS with the wall, (Do not post images which contain the answer to the question!!!!!) AND message/ mail me with the answer to the following:
2. Look just above the bridge arch, to the right there are two initials in one of the large stones. What are those initials?
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Calling it a bridge is a bit misleading, because it no longer crosses over any body of water, however it originally spanned the Hanging Ditch which connected the rivers Irk and Irwell. Now listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, it was originally built to link the now Grade I listed Cathedral to the city.
Historians assume that the bridge was most likely built from the remains of the ancient Roman fort Mamucium, built in 79 AD. Researchers also assumed that the ditch under the bridge was probably a defensive structure in the Roman era, but the first reference to the bridge was in 1343, when it was called Hengand Brigge.
The present structure was built around 1421, replacing the earlier bridge. The remains consist of two arches of red sandstone, the southern arch strengthened by three stone ribs. It measures approximately 3m in width and each arch spans 5.13m. One buttress survives on the eastern side. The arches rise to 3m above the abutments and central pier. It is a rare example of architecture from the Middle Ages, and also formed part of Manchester's medieval defences.
In 1600, the Hanging Ditch was condemned as an insanitary open sewer, and in the following years the ditch was culverted and the bridge buried and built over. Houses were built over the top in the 1770's, and the bridge was then forgotten, remembered only in the name of the area where it had stood, until its rediscovery and subsequent excavation as a result of demolition work carried out in the 1880s.
The bridge was thought to be lost until it was rediscovered during excavations in the 1880s, where it was put on display, and in three months had about 32,000 paying visitors.
The Hanging Ditch bridge was covered again during the Victorian expansion of the city centre before being rediscovered more than a century later by archaeologists, and a careful restoration was carried out, even though most of the bridge is hidden under city buildings.
It was unveiled in 2002 as part of the interior of the Cathedral visitor centre.
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Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.