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Clifton Suspension Bridge

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Architecture; Engineering

   CAPTION: Clifton Suspension Bridge

   Clifton Suspension Bridge
   Clifton suspension bridge taken from a slip road off Brunel Way.
   Carries Cars, pedestrians and cycles
   Crosses River Avon
   Locale Bristol
   Maintained by Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust
   Design Suspension
   Longest span 702 ft (214 m)
   Total length 1,352 ft (414 m)
   Width 31 ft (9.5m)
   Clearance below 245 ft (75 m) above high water level
   Opening date 1864
   Toll 30 pence
   Coordinates ( grid reference ST564730)
   Shown within Bristol (above) and England
   Shown within Bristol (above) and England.
                                            Bristol shown within England

   The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge, spanning the Avon
   Gorge and linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset,
   UK. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it is a distinctive landmark
   that is often used as a symbol of Bristol. It is a grade I listed
   building.

   The bridge has long had a reputation as a suicide spot. Because of
   this, dedicated telephones with a direct line to The Samaritans were
   placed beside the bridge. However, the phones have since been
   vandalised and there are now only wires dangling from where the phones
   once hung. In 1885, a 22 year old woman called Sarah Ann Henley
   survived a jump from the bridge when her billowing skirts acted as a
   parachute, and subsequently lived into her eighties.

History

   The idea of building a bridge across the Avon Gorge originated in 1754,
   with a bequest in the will of Bristolian merchant William Vick, who
   left £1,000 invested with instructions that when the interest had
   accumulated to £10,000, it should be used for the purpose of building a
   stone bridge between Clifton Down (which was in Gloucestershire,
   outside the City of Bristol, until the 1830s) and Leigh Woods (then in
   Somerset), both of which were barely populated at the time.
   The Bridge seen from a point between the Clifton pier and Sion Hill.
   (see also this similar image)
   Enlarge
   The Bridge seen from a point between the Clifton pier and Sion Hill.
   (see also this similar image)
   View from the observatory
   Enlarge
   View from the observatory

   By the 1820s, Vick's bequest was nearing £8,000, but it was estimated
   that a stone bridge would cost over ten times that amount. An Act of
   Parliament was passed to allow a wrought-iron suspension bridge to be
   built instead, and tolls levied to recoup the cost. In 1829, a
   competition was held to find a design for the bridge; the judge, Thomas
   Telford, rejected all designs, and tried to insist on a hugely
   expensive design of his own. A second competition, held with new
   judges, was won by Brunel's design, for a suspension bridge with
   fashionably Egyptian-influenced towers.

   An attempt to build Brunel's design in 1831 was stopped by the Bristol
   Riots, which severely dented commercial confidence in Bristol. Work was
   not started again until 1836, and thereafter the capital from Vick's
   bequest and subsequent investment proved woefully inadequate. By 1843,
   the towers had been built in unfinished stone, but funds were
   exhausted. In 1851, the ironwork was sold and used to build the
   Brunel-designed Royal Albert Bridge on the railway between Plymouth and
   Saltash.

   Brunel died in 1859, without seeing the completion of the bridge.
   Brunel's colleagues in the Institution of Civil Engineers felt that
   completion of the Bridge would be a fitting memorial, and started to
   raise new funds. In 1860, Brunel's Hungerford suspension bridge, over
   the Thames in London, was demolished to make way for a new railway
   bridge to Charing Cross railway station, and its chains were purchased
   for use at Clifton. A slightly revised design was made by William Henry
   Barlow and Sir John Hawkshaw; it has a wider, higher and sturdier deck
   than Brunel intended, triple chains instead of double, and the towers
   were left as rough stone rather than being finished in Egyptian style.
   Work on the bridge was restarted in 1862, and was complete by 1864. The
   bridge has been open continuously since then.

   The bridge is now managed by a trust set up by Act of Parliament in
   1952. Tolls are levied on vehicles but no longer on cyclists or
   pedestrians. The bridge is usually illuminated at night, with a
   modernised, LED-based array switched on for the first time on 8 April
   2006, to an accompaniment of fireworks and festivities. This was after
   an extended period of much reduced lighting, and timed to coincide with
   the bicentenary of Brunel's birth.

   On 26 November 2003, the last ever Concorde flight (Concorde 216) flew
   over the bridge before landing at Filton Airfield. It was a symbolic
   moment which commemorated Bristol's past feats in engineering.
   The plaque on the bridge
   Enlarge
   The plaque on the bridge

   In 2002 it was discovered that the large red sandstone abutment on the
   Leigh Woods side is not (as had been thought for many years) solid
   stone, but has twelve vaulted chambers up to 35 ft (11 m) high within
   it. In 2003 the weight of crowds returning from the Ashton Court
   festival and Bristol International Balloon Fiesta put such great strain
   on the bridge that it was decided to close the bridge to all traffic,
   including pedestrians, during the whole of the Ashton Court Festival
   and part of the Balloon Fiesta in 2004.

Dimensions

     * Span: 702 ft (214 m)
     * Height of towers: 86 ft (26 m)
     * Clearance: 245 ft (75 m) above high water level
     * Traffic: Four million vehicles per year

   Retrieved from "
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Suspension_Bridge"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
