Industrial Britain

This Victorian marvel of engineering and artistic prowess is nicknamed the "Cathedral of Steam."

This bridge is the first to be made entirely from iron, but designed like it was still made of wood.

The first tunnel to be dug beneath a river, repurposed as an art and museum space.

The National Railway Museum in York is the largest railway museum in the world, attracting almost 1 million visitors per year.

Go deep down into the earth to experience the world of Welsh coal miners.

This elaborate Byzantine-style building was designed for a not-so-pretty purpose.

The oldest working Brewery in Britain.

This tunnel entrance is built to resemble a grand castle but no one is quite sure why.

This historic abandoned train station looks like a stop for ghost trains.

These picturesque ruins crumble beautifully into the ocean.

The elegant structure of this 19th century railroad bridge creates an illusion of infinity.

This former Welsh metal factory is now a lovely abandoned relic but was once one of the industry's world leaders.

This beautiful Victorian ironwork masterpiece was built to keep London from smelling like poop.

This enchanting Victorian estate was home to the world's first hydroelectric power generator.

To literally keep their waste out of their own backyards, the citizens of this English city built an impressive sewer system that is still in use today.

A preserved 18th century steel factory.

Wonderfully preserved Victorian factory, complete with a preserved steam powered engine house.

England's foremost purveyor of funeral furniture hasn't changed a bit since the 1960s.

This centuries-old canal known as the Cuckoo Dyke has a staircase of locks suitable for a giant.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, one of the great Victorian engineers, was the driving force behind the short-lived atmospheric railway.

The rust covering this old mine's abandoned buildings matches the red pigment it once produced.

Manchester's abandoned train depot lingers in a post-industrial purgatory.

When methane gas started seeping up from the ground, they picked up and moved the entire town.

Built in 1911, the Tees Transporter Bridge is one of only six transporter bridges still in operation.

This aging storage facility is the world's largest brick warehouse.

The designer of this railway tunnel added a birthday present for himself.

The world's largest collection of artifacts from our history of industrial gas use is hard to simply pass.

These abandoned coal mine towers near Sherwood Forest might soon boast the U.K.’s longest zip-line.

A collection of early 19th century trams set in a reconstructed period village.

This jewel of an engine is one of Northern England's finest surviving legacies of the Industrial Revolution, even catching the eye of Henry Ford.

One of the last remnants of the Bessemer process that revolutionized steel production during the industrial age.

A 168-foot tower, part of the abandoned Chester Leadworks facility.

A giant gleaming memorial named for a coal miner who gave his life to the pits.

A rotating bridge that carries a little canal over a larger one.

The world's first successful water-powered cotton mill paved the way for the factories of the British Industrial Revolution.

Hidden on the urban banks of a Manchester river are a series of abandoned waterside industrial sites.

A sturdy relic of Britain's once crucial gunpowder industry is now a haunting Cornish ruin.

The longest and tallest aqueduct in Britain can actually be sailed across.

A slightly surreal menagerie of structures that were lovingly spared from demolition and reconstructed in a field.

Locals call it the "Give Peas a Chance" bridge because of its distinct graffiti.

A subterranean playground in an abandoned slate mine.

This beautiful example of Victorian engineering is the oldest water-balanced funicular anywhere in the world.

A locomotive made from 185,000 bricks celebrates the town's pioneering railway history.

A relic from one of London's worst 19th-century slums.

An abandoned quarrying village turned commune is now a hub for learning the Welsh language.

An iconic waterwheel in the Pennine Hills marks the location of one of Britain’s most profitable lead mines.

Centuries of human activity have forged an eerie landscape of ruins and craters on an exposed and windswept hilltop.

The largest of only eight working transporter bridges left in the world.