ABSTRACT
Causey Arch in county Durham is a site symbolic of the very fundamental restructuring of the economy of the north east of England which took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. The spatial evolution of the northern coalfield was a complex outcome of the interaction of a number of significant factors. Geological conditions were of course a constraint, but we must also consider the available mining and transport technology and the facilitating organization. Causey Arch was constructed by Liddell and Wortley in 17256 over the Causey Burn for branch lines to join the new Tanfield waggonway, which ran 13km north east to the Tyne at Dunston. This was for several decades the longest single span arch in the country and is reputedly the world's oldest surviving railway bridge. In the early 1730s up to 500 waggons per day paid tolls to cross the bridge and then ran by gravity for much of the route northwards.
