1768 James Brindley proposed building an aqueduct to carry the Bridgewater Canal across the river and so continue to Liverpool. (Too expensive).
1800 Civil Engineer Ralph Dodd proposed a cast iron structure of 3 or 5 arches, wide enough to carry an aqueduct along its centre, with a roadway on either side.(idea not taken further).
c.1813James Dumbell of Warrington proposed a High Level road bridge, but never gave detailed plans.
1813 William Nicholson deposited bridge plans which did not receive any attention from influential people
1816 A public meeting was held in the White Hart Inn in Runcorn, to form a Committee to push forward the idea of a bridge.
The Marquises of Stafford and Cholmondeley, the Earl of Derby, and the Mayors of Liverpool and Chester were invited onto it. Several designs were considered
but Liverpool Council were cool to the plans which went no further.
1818 Liverpool Council itself presented a Parliamentary Bill concerning a bridge over the Runcorn Gap. This was for a suspension bridge
to a design of Thomas Telford.
It would have a centre span of 305 meters and two side spans, each of 152 meters width. The road platform would be suspended from
laminated iron cables.
The cost was considered prohibited and the idea dropped. (A similar bridge by Telford was later used to bridge the Menai Straits between Anglesey and the Welsh mainland).