Clifton Suspension Bridge

Clifton Suspension Bridge 245 feet (75 meters) above the water, has become an object of local pride and national interest. It is a tourist attraction and a symbol for the promotion of Bristol commerce.

The iron structure, with a main span of 702 feet (214 meters), challenged conventional wisdom and pushed the new material and cotemporary technology beyond the theoretical limits.

Completed in 1864, the Clifton Suspension Bridge was mainly designed to carry light horse-drawn traffic and foot passengers, but these days around 12,000 cars cross it every day.

The foundation stone to a bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel was laid in 1837, almost a century after a bequest of £1000 by William Vick in 1753,

There were delays for other reasons, including the 1831 Bristol riots associated with the Reform Bill, but lack of funds was the main problem. Work did not start until 1836. More financial shortfalls caused an interruption in 1853 and the piers stood untouched for some years.

It remained unfinished at Brunel’s death in 1859 and shortly after the Institution of Civil Engineers led a commercial initiative to complete to to remove ‘what was considered a slur upon the engineering talent of the country’.

The Clifton Bridge as finally opened n 1864 and was operated by a company financed by tolls.
Clifton Suspension Bridge

Westminster Bridge

A suggestion for a bridge here was made in 1664, but was vigorously resisted by Londoners.

Fourteen years after failure of the Westminster Bridge Bill of 1722, a petition was again presented to Parliament by the Burgesses, Freeholders and Inhabitants of Westminster in February 1736, arguing that the great increase in buildings and population made a new bridge essential.

An Act was obtained, Commissioners were appointed, and £5 lottery tickets were sold to raise the necessary £625 000.

The architect of Westminster Bridge was Charles Labelye, a native of Switzerland: the first stone was laid by the Earl of Pembroke, on January 29, 1738-9.

Labelye is credited with the introduction of the caisson method of building foundations, which is said to have been first used on the Westminster Bridge.

It consists of fifteen semicircular arches, the centre seventy-six feet span; it is 1223 feet long by 44 feet wide. It was originally intended for a wooden bridge, and was partly commenced on this principle.

It had two footways, with a ‘Horse Road’ thirty feet across where horses had a sleep climb to the central arch.

The original Westminster Bridge was a stone structure opened in 1750 which was only the second to be built across the Thames where it flowed through the Metropolis.
Westminster Bridge

London Bridge

The first bridge over the Thames Rover in London was probably a wooden bridge built buy the Romans in AD 43. The Old London Bridge of nursery-rhyme fame was built by Peter of Colechurch between 1176 and 1209, replacing an earlier timber bridge.

Because of obstruction encountered in building the cofferdams, the arch spans varied from 4.6 – 10.4 m) the uneven construction resulted I frequent need for repair, but the bridge survived more than 600 years.

It was demolished and replaced in the 1820s by New London Bridge, designed and built by John Rennie, Sr (1761-1821) and his son John Rennie. It consists of five elliptical arches, the least of which is larger than any stone arch of this description ever before erected.

Back in the mid 1960s, when London Bridge sinking - into the Thames River due to heavy car and truck traffic the British Government decided to sell the bridge.

It was again replaced; the old bridge was dismantles and re-erected at Lake Havasu City, Arizona as a tourist attraction in 1968.

The New London Bridge was opened by Queen on March 17, 1973.
London Bridge