Clifton Suspension Bridge

Rather fragile this morning, but this didn’t stop Manuel, Tom and I heading to see the Clifton Suspension bridge. From their website, The Clifton Suspension Bridge, spanning the picturesque Avon Gorge, is the symbol of the city of Bristol. For almost 150 years this Grade I listed structure has attracted visitors from all over the world. Its story began in 1754 with the dream of a Bristol wine merchant who left a legacy to build a bridge over the Gorge. Twenty-four year old Isambard Kingdom Brunel was eventually appointed project engineer – his first major commission. Work began in 1831 but the project was dogged with political and financial difficulties and by 1843, with only the towers completed, the project was abandoned. Brunel died aged only fifty-three years old in 1859 but the bridge was completed as his memorial and finally opened in 1864. Designed in the early 19th century for light horse drawn traffic it still meets the demands of 21st century commuter traffic with 11-12,000 motor vehicles crossing it every day.

Finding the bridge was surprisingly easy, mainly because we decided to follow our noses and just guess where we were going by a general sense of direction, occasional signs and hope. We were very lucky. This was the only photograph I took of the bridge, because due to over usage the night before and the lack of a charger, my battery had run out the night before. I ended up warming said battery up in my hands the entire walk to the bridge…popped it in the camera just as we were at the bridge, quickly set some sort of settings, took one photograph and…well this is that photograph. It did no more than this! Lucky I had guesstimated right…

As well as going to see the bridge we also headed down into the “Giant’s Cave”, a natural cave on the side of the cliff…where on the way, I laughed so much at the struggles of the men trying to go down the tunnels to said cave that I had to sit down on the floor. The tunnels were pretty low, I’ll put it that way. Serendipitously, we ended up meeting up with Mike, Ollie, Rhys and Tobie at the top of the cliffs, so we all wandered back to town together. The bus journey back to university was fine, although I was so glad for my own bed and a cup of tea when I got back.

All in all, great minitour.