He was so fortunate as to find the owner of the other or Broseley half of the ferry equally anxious with himself to connect the two banks of the river by means of a bridge.

The necessary powers were accordingly obtained from Parliament, and a bridge was authorized to be built "of cast-iron, stone, brick, or timber." A company was formed for the purpose of carrying out the project, and the shares were taken by the adjoining owners, Abraham Darby being the principal subscriber.[9] The construction of a bridge of iron was an entirely new idea.

An attempt had indeed been made at Lyons, in France, to construct such a bridge more than twenty years before; but it had entirely failed, and a bridge of timber was erected instead.

It is not known whether the Coalbrookdale masters had heard of that attempt; but, even if they had, it could have been of no practical use to them.
Mr.Pritchard, an architect of Shrewsbury, was first employed to prepare a design of the intended structure, which is still preserved.
Although Mr.Pritchard proposed to introduce cast-iron in the arch of the bridge, which was to be of 120 feet span, it was only as a sort of key, occupying but a few feet at the crown of the arch.

This sparing use of cast iron indicates the timidity of the architect in dealing with the new material--his plan exhibiting a desire to effect a compromise between the tried and the untried in bridge-construction.
But the use of iron to so limited an extent, and in such a part of the structure, was of more than questionable utility; and if Mr.
Pritchard's plan had been adopted, the problem of the iron bridge would still have remained unsolved.
The plan, however, after having been duly considered, was eventually set aside, and another, with the entire arch of cast-iron, was prepared under the superintendence of Abraham Darby, by Mr.Thomas Gregory, his foreman of pattern-makers.