Royal Albert Bridge

The Royal Albert Bridge (sometimes called Bridge of Saltash or Bridge of Brunel ) crosses the estuary of the river Tamar, in England, between Plymouth, on the coast of the Devon and Saltash, on the coast of Cornouailles. It carries the railway line of the Great Western Railway.

A complex structure

The Royal Albert Bridge is a metallic bridge with lattice girders of lenticular drawing, with an arc out of tube of wrought iron and an auxiliary suspension with chains. Each principal span includes/understands an enormous tubular arc of oval section, working in compression, and two lifting chains working in tension to contain the forces in the buttresses. Between these two reinforcements a secondary system of lattice in cross is, which supports the apron. The bridge is composed of two principal spans of 455 feet (139 m), with 100 feet (30 m) above high waters, and of seventeen spans of approach much shorter.

History

The bridge was designed in 1855 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Company of the railroads of Cornouailles, after the Parliament of the United Kingdom had rejected its original project for a ferry crossing the " Hamoaze" (word Cornique indicating a Estuary). It was inaugurated by the prince Albert of Saxony-Cobourg-Gotha, the May 2nd 1859, a few months before the death of the large engineer.

This work is the third of a series of three large bridges in Wrought iron built during the same period. It was influenced by the two preceding bridges, both of Robert Stephenson.

The drawing of the two center sections of the bridge is derived from that of the bridge High Level Bridge which crosses the river the Tyne with the Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The method of construction was rather similar to that of the Pont Britannia, which crosses the strait of Menai, in the north of the Wales: the spans were built with ground, then brought by floatation and finally raised. The difficulty of construction places this bridge among the great railway exploits of Brunel. At a short distance in the north of the bridge of Brunel, the Tamar river is crossed by Tamar Bridge, suspended bridge modern which carries a38 road, one of the two main roads which connect the county of Cornouailles to the Devon.

External bonds

  • Royal Bridge Albert, on Structurae
  • Official site with many images
  • Very beautiful photographs of the Royal Albert Bridge
  • the Royal Albert Bridge

References

  • John Binding, Brunel' S Royal Albert Bridge: With Study off the Design and Construction off his Gateway to Cornwall At Saltash . Truro: Twelveheads Near, 1997.

  • Charles Matthew Norrie, Bridging the Years - has off shorts history British Civil Engineering , Edward Arnold Ltd, 1956.


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