8th September: The Severn Bridge Opened

The Severn Bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 1966. 10 things you might not know about the Severn Bridge:

1. The Severn Bridge is known as Pont Hafron to Welsh Speakers.
2. In 1999, it was granted Grade I listed status.
3. In 1962, it was decided that the building costs would be recovered by means of a toll - two shillings and sixpence per vehicle, although walking or cycling across would be free. In 2013 it cost £6.20 to drive across in a car. If you happen to be driving a lorry it would set you back £18.60. Motorcycles and disabled badge holders can still cross for free and there is still a footpath and cycle path on either side of the road. The road in question is now the M48. It was the M4 up until 1996, when a second bridge crossing opened. The cycle lane forms part of National Cycle Route 4.
4. The Severn Bridge has carried more than 300,000,000 vehicles since it opened.
5. Its vital statistics are: Total length 0.99 mi (1.6 km); Height 445 ft (136 m); Longest span 3,240 ft (988 m) and Clearance below 154 ft (47 m).
6. Shortly after the opening of the Severn Bridge, Anglo-Welsh poet Harri Webb wrote an Ode on the Severn Bridge: Two lands at last connected Across the waters wide, And all the tolls collected On the English side. It is indeed the case that tolls are only collected from vehicles travelling from England into Wales, and has been so since the 1990s when it was decided that toll booths on both sides caused too much traffic congestion.
7. Although known as the Severn Bridge, it actually spans the River Wye as well as the Severn so perhaps it should be called the Severn and Wye Bridge. It stretches between Aust, South Gloucestershire in England and Chepstow in Monmouthshire on the Welsh side. Before the bridge was built, a ferry used to sail from Aust.
8. The Bridge cost £8 million to build, and consists of four component structures: Aust Viaduct, The Severn Bridge itself, Beachley Viaduct (crossing the Beachley peninsula) and the Wye Bridge. It is actually the Wye Bridge section that forms the border between England and Wales, because Beachley is in England.
9. The Severn Bridge is a suspension bridge, with the unusual feature that the cables suspending it are not vertical but form a zig zag pattern, designed to reduce vibration.
10. Like many large structures, tragedies have occurred during its construction and maintenance. On 19 November 1961, three of the builders fell into the river. The alarm was raised and a rescue boat crewed by two men set sail from Chepstow. Unknown to the crew of the rescue boat the three men had been picked up safely by the last crossing of the day of one of the Aust to Beachley ferry boats, the Severn Princess. Two tanker barges were coming down empty from Sharpness, the Wyesdale H and the Wharfedale H, tied together and both being steered from the Wyesdale H. The steersman failed to see the rescue boat, as the boat had no navigation lights, and both barges collided with it. One man was saved, but the other crew member of the rescue boat drowned. Then on 4 September 1990, three men were working in one of the four maintenance gantries attached to the underside of the Severn Bridge, carrying out routine maintenance work. The gantry gave way plunging the three men into the Severn. Mark Seaton (19), a painter, survived the 150 ft (46 m) drop, but Robin Phelps (44) and Eric Sullivan (46) were killed.