Although never part of the main line, it was on a branch West of Shildon serving Witton Park Colliery.

The idea is that this forms a balanced truss, where the sideways forces in each member cancel out, being equal but opposite in direction.

This leads to a truss with no side forces on its supports and so only requiring simple piers with no need for endways stiffness.

The unusual feature of this bridge is that because the deck is above the truss, the vertical members are placed in compression, rather than the more normal tension.

[ii][3] The truss achieves an efficient symmetry of the load distribution between the two members, giving an economical and balanced appearance that is in great contrast to Brunel's heavily unbalanced designs that (for Chepstow at least) are barely recognisable as lenticular.

[9] The piers supporting the truss spans form a trestle comprising two inward-leaning cast iron tubular pillars.

Its erection was completed on 23 October 1823, The winter of 1824 had heavy snows and even before the line was opened, the bridge was damaged by flooding.

[14] When the York Railway Museum was opened at Queen Street in 1927, the bridge was re-assembled in commemoration of the centenary of the S&DR.

[3][9] From 1975, it was on display in the car park of the National Railway Museum, York, for many years carrying a coal wagon of the original chaldron style.

In February 2023 Historic England awarded Durham County Council £161,000 to repair the abutments, which remained in situ when the original bridge was deconstructed.

Escomb bridge is Grade II listed and was refurbished in 2009, with its wooden parapet being raised for modern safety standards.