December 8th: Clifton Suspension Bridge

In 1864, 150 years ago, The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon, Bristol, designed by Brunel, was opened. It links Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset, and is built to a design by William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw, based on an earlier design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

1. From the first plans to the final opening, construction took 111 years. The French Revolutionary Wars, the Bristol riots and continually running out of investment kept holding up the project. Brunel served as a Special Constable during the Bristol riots.
2. It was meant to be a stone bridge. In 1753, a Bristol businessman, William Vick, left £1,000 in his will (£130,000 in today's money) to be invested and when the interest reached 10 times the initial amount, it should be used to build a stone bridge on the spot. An act of Parliament was required to allow the bridge to be built of wrought Iron instead.
3. Two competitions were held to find a design for the bridge. Brunel did not, strictly speaking, win either. In the first contest, all the designs, including four by Brunel, were rejected, and in the second, the winner was declared to be a design by Smith and Hawkes of the Eagle Foundry in Birmingham. Brunel contested the result. He had a personal meeting with one of the judges and persuaded him to change the decision.
4. By the 1850s, the towers and an iron bar across the gorge had been built, but the ironwork needed to finish the job had been sold off. However, brave souls could get across on a basket hung from the bar.
5. In Brunel's original design, there was a Sphinx on top of each tower.
6. The Bridge has a reputation as a suicide bridge, so railings and publicity for the Samaritans have been put in place. Jumping or falling off the bridge isn't always fatal, though. In 1885 a 22 year old woman fell from the bridge and was saved by her full skirts, which acted like a parachute. She lived to be over 80.
7. More recently, the bridge was the venue for the first modern bungee jumps in the UK in 1979.
8. High winds have closed the bridge just once in living memory - on 12 February 2014.
9. Brunel's father advised him about the design. However, the younger Brunel ignored some of his father's advice - the older Brunel did not think it was possible to build a single span bridge that long and thought it needed a central support. His son ignored him and did the seemingly impossible.
10. Today, The bridge is managed by a charitable trust, originally formed by the Society of Merchant Venturers following Vick's bequest. Four million vehicles cross it every year for the princely toll of £1.