331 ft (101 m) above high water level (86 ft (26 m) above deck)
Longest span
702 ft 3 in (214.05 m)
Clearance below
245 ft (75 m) above high water level
History
Opened
1864
Statistics
Daily traffic
8,800[1]
Toll
Vehicles £1.00
Location
class=notpageimage|
Shown within Bristol and the UK
The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Since opening in 1864, it has been a toll bridge, the income from which provides funds for its maintenance. The bridge is built to a design by William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw,[2] based on an earlier design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It is a Grade I listed building and forms part of the B3129 road.
The idea of building a bridge across the Avon Gorge originated in 1753. Original plans were for a stone bridge and later iterations were for a wrought iron structure. In 1831, an attempt to build Brunel's design was halted by the Bristol riots, and the revised version of his designs was built after his death and completed in 1864. Although similar in size and design, the bridge towers are not identical, the Clifton tower having side cut-outs, the Leigh tower more pointed arches atop a 110-foot (34 m) red sandstone-clad abutment. Roller-mounted "saddles" at the top of each tower allow movement of the three independent wrought iron eyebar chains on each side when loads pass over the bridge. The bridge deck is suspended by 162 vertical wrought-iron rods in 81 matching pairs.
The Clifton Bridge Company initially managed the bridge under licence from a charitable trust. The trust subsequently purchased the company shares, completing this in 1949 and took over the running of the bridge using the income from tolls to pay for maintenance. The bridge is a distinctive landmark, used as a symbol of Bristol on postcards, promotional materials, and informational web sites. It has been used as a backdrop to several films and television advertising and programmes. It has also been the venue for significant cultural events such as the first modern bungee jump in 1979, the last Concorde flight in 2003 which flew over the bridge, and a handover of the Olympic Torch relay in 2012.
^"Suspension bridge toll may double to £1". Bristol Evening Post. 12 November 2010. Archived from the original on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
^Beaumont, Martin (2015). Sir John Hawkshaw 1811–1891. The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society www.lyrs.org.uk. pp. 108–111. ISBN 978-0-9559467-7-6.
and 27 Related for: Clifton Suspension Bridge information
The CliftonSuspensionBridge is a suspensionbridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset...
A suspensionbridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type...
limestone cliffs. The upper station is close to Brunel's famous CliftonSuspensionBridge and is located adjacent to the former Grand Spa Hotel (now the...
the nearby Taft Bridge. A similar result was seen when barriers were erected on the popular suicide bridge: the CliftonSuspensionBridge, in the United...
barrier went up compared to the four years before. A study on the CliftonSuspensionBridge in Bristol, England, found a decrease in jumping suicides on site...
Clifton Observatory (grid reference ST564733) is a former mill, now used as an observatory, located on Clifton Down, close to the CliftonSuspension Bridge...
which opened in 1864. The chains from the old bridge were re-used in Bristol's CliftonSuspensionBridge. The original brick pile buttresses of Brunel's...
CliftonBridge may refer to: CliftonBridge (Nottingham), United Kingdom CliftonBridge (York), United Kingdom CliftonSuspensionBridge, Bristol, United...
CliftonSuspensionBridge, a fall of almost 75 metres (246 ft). On Friday, 8 May 1885, Thomas Stevens, resident inspector for the CliftonSuspension Bridge...
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, including: The CliftonSuspensionBridge across the Avon Gorge in Bristol The Royal Albert Bridge across the River Tamar from Devon...
which time he began a design for a bridge in Bristol, which would later be completed as the CliftonSuspensionBridge. The event stopped work on the tunnel...
Woods. Along the way it crosses 45 bridges including CliftonSuspensionBridge, Bristol Bridge, and Avonmouth Bridge. The walk featured in various charity...
hill forts overlooking the gorge, as well as an observatory. The CliftonSuspensionBridge, an icon of Bristol, crosses the gorge. 51°27′18″N 2°37′40″W...
oceangoing steamships (SS Great Britain and SS Great Western), and the CliftonSuspensionBridge. The new railway replaced the Kennet and Avon Canal, which had...
series. The CliftonSuspensionBridge in Bristol was used as the setting for a scene, which was filmed in October 2019 while the bridge was closed, supposedly...
The Silver Bridge was an eyebar-chain suspensionbridge built in 1928 which carried U.S. Route 35 over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West...
Hawkshaw, he completed Isambard Kingdom Brunel's CliftonSuspensionBridge. Following the Tay Bridge disaster he sat on the commission which investigated...
modern low-redundancy chain link suspension spans fell into general disfavor as a result of the collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967, which led to the deaths...
climbing and zip-lining from the bridge. It was featured alongside Kyiv's Glass Bridge and CliftonSuspensionBridge. In February 2014, the government...
longest suspensionbridges are listed according to the length of their main span (i.e., the length of suspended roadway between the bridge's towers)....
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspensionbridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn...
Portway road which connects Bristol to Avonmouth, passing under the CliftonSuspensionBridge which lies about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) north of Hotwells. Hotwells...
Edward Island Clifton, a former name of Niagara Falls Clifton, Bedfordshire Clifton, Bristol, a suburb CliftonSuspensionBridgeClifton, Cheshire, a location...
part in the development of Bristol, including the building of CliftonSuspensionBridge and the Great Western Railway. It also influenced the development...
Niagara Falls SuspensionBridge stood from 1855 to 1897 across the Niagara River and was the world's first working railway suspensionbridge. It spanned...
Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule, suspension, and, until 1960, cantilever bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by...
Global Information
