The Brentford Branch Line was built in west London, by the Great Western and Brentford Railway Company which was incorporated by Act of Parliament

Act of Parliament

An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 in 1855. The line was opened on 18 July 1859 and operated by the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 (GWR) from the outset. The Brentford company was amalgamated

Consolidation (business)

Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...

 into the GWR in February 1872.

It was built from a down-facing connection with the Great Western Main Line

Great Western Main Line

The Great Western Main Line is a main line railway in Great Britain that runs westwards from London Paddington station to the west of England and South Wales. The core Great Western Main Line runs from London Paddington to Temple Meads railway station in Bristol. A major branch of the Great...

 at to serve the company's new docks at Brentford

Brentford

Brentford is a suburban town in west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent, west-southwest of Charing Cross. Its former ceremonial county was Middlesex.-Toponymy:...

 which later catered for as much as ten percent of the country's imports. The company had also built most the Brentford Dock

Brentford Dock

Brentford Dock in, Brentford, west London was a major trans-shipment point between the Great Western Railway and barges on the River Thames. The building of Brentford Dock was started in 1855 and it was formally opened in 1859...

 itself, at which the originally 7ft gauge line, would terminate at until 1970. The capacity of the branch was augmented by a separate mixed gauge track with complete conversion to standard gauge in 1875.

The branch had only one passenger station, Brentford

Brentford railway station (GWR)

Brentford railway station opened in 1860 on the Brentford Branch Line which had opened in 1859 from to Brentford Dock. It stood immediately north of Brentford High Street on the embankment leading to the viaduct into the dock...

 immediately north of the A315 (London Road/High Street) until the intermediate was opened in 1904. That closed for the second time in 1926. The passenger service was withdrawn in 1942. In 1964 the southern end from the docks to Brentford New Yard, some kilometre northeast of the station, closed. That yard closed in the 1970s but the line to just north of it is used by building aggregate services and a refuse transfer station. A kilometre from Southall there is Brunel's famous 'Three Bridges' where a road crosses the Grand Junction Canal

Grand Junction Canal

The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-passing the upper reaches of the River Thames near Oxford...

 with the railway in a cutting beneath the two.

The Three Bridges bridge crossing is a unique transport intersection, that was designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

. It was to be his last project before he died on 15th September 1859 just two months after its completion. The correct name for it should be Windmill Bridge - named after the Southall Mill, which stood on the south-western side of the original canal bridge which was first built in the 1790's when the canal was cut. J.M.W. Turner painted this windmill in 1806. The Three Bridges has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument

Scheduled Ancient Monument

In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...

 by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

.