Famous bridge:

Bridges are not only the superstars of the engineering world, they influence the development of cultures, environments and lives in more ways than we can count. Bridges shape skylines. Imagine San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge, or Manhattan without the Brooklyn Bridge. These structures also shape our lives, aiding commerce, social life and urban development. I have compiled a list of what I think are some of the biggest and best bridges in the world. This is obviously not a complete list, the one's included I feel are recognised world wide. Click on the links below to find out more.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

For over 100 years the Clifton Suspension Bridge, spanning the beautiful Avon Gorge, has been as much the symbol of Bristol as the Eiffel Tower of Paris or the Opera House of Sydney. Since its opening in 1864 meticulous maintenance has ensured that the bridge has never closed. It is easy to forget that this structure which was designed in the 1830s, built in the 1860s and intended entirely for horse-drawn traffic, now carries a staggering total of 4 million cars a year.

Today the Clifton Suspension Bridge is looked after by a Trust setup under an Act of Parliament of 1952. The 13 trustees include representatives of local government together with others chosen for their technical or business expertise. The trustees are empowered to collect tolls, although since 1991 pedestrians and cyclists have crossed free of charge. Day to day responsibility for the bridge is in the hands of the Bridge Master who is on call 24 hours a day. He controls a team of 13 tollkeepers and 3 maintenance men.

Humber Bridge

The Humber Bridge is a suspension bridge with the north tower sited on the high water line and the south tower founded in shallow water 500m from the shore.

On the north bank, a hard well-jointed bed of chalk comes close to the surface and is covered by a tough layer of glacially deposited chalky boulder clay. The chalk has provided good foundations for both the anchorage and tower on this bank, on the south side, soft alluvium is underlain by beds of boulder clay, sand and gravel. Below these beds, at a depth of 30m, there is a deep bed of stiff, heavily fissured kimmeridge clay, on which the tower and anchorage have been founded. Designed to cross the last major unbridged estuary in Britain, the bridge comprises reinforced concrete towers aerial-spun catenary cables and a continuously-welded, closed � box road deck supported by inclined hanger cables.