A SIX ton girder was hoisted into the air as part of major work to refurbish the Trinity Street bridge in Bolton in 1968.

For 60 years more than 60 of the girders had supported the road carrying traffic across the railway lines but a £198,000 replacement scheme was in full swing.

The 27-foot girder was loaded on to a lorry and taken away for scrap.

A special thermic lance had been brought in to cut through the three-foot thick girder in just eight minutes, in contrast to the normal oxy-acetylene cutters which would have taken around two-and-a-half hours to complete the task.

The girders were being removed at the rate of five a day leaving a view of the platform and railway line below through a gaping hole.

The girders were to be lifted out of half of the bridge before pre-stressed concrete sections could be brought in to replace them.