Porthill Bridge | |
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Coordinates | 52°42′29″N2°45′50″W / 52.708°N 2.764°W Coordinates: 52°42′29″N2°45′50″W / 52.708°N 2.764°W |
Carries | Footpath |
Crosses | River Severn |
Locale | Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England |
Characteristics | |
Design | Suspension bridge |
History | |
Constructed by | David Rowell & Co. |
Construction start | 1922 |
Opened | 18 January 1923 |
Statistics | |
Toll | No |
Location | |
Porthill Bridge, also often referred to as Port Hill Footbridge, is a suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England.
It connects Porthill with the Quarry and the town centre. Next to it on the Porthill side is the Boathouse public house and Becks Field - both Quarry Park and Becks Field are extensive open green spaces largely preserved from building by their propensity to flood. Porthill Bridge experiences significant vibration, even when few people are crossing it - and has done since it was installed. Local pedestrians mostly accept this eccentricity as part of the bridge's charm.
A ferry operated here until the bridge was built in 1922 by David Rowell & Co. One of the posts to which the cable was attached is still visible on the north bank of the river just a few metres west of the crossing. The bridge was opened on 18 January 1923. £2,000 of the bridge's total £2,600 cost was paid for by the Shropshire Horticultural Society.
From March to July 2012 the bridge was closed for refurbishment, which included repainting the whole bridge and replacing the timber deck, costing £575,000. The bridge was temporarily replaced with a passenger ferry between the Quarry and the Boat House pub with an adult single fare of 50p. [1] [2]
The River Severn, at 220 miles (354 km) long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of 107 m3/s (3,800 cu ft/s) at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in the Cambrian Mountains in mid Wales, at an altitude of 2,001 feet (610 m), on the Plynlimon massif, which lies close to the Ceredigion/Powys border near Llanidloes. The river then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The county towns of Shrewsbury, Gloucester and the City of Worcester lie on its course.
Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and is one of five London bridges owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust founded in 1282. The bridge was constructed to give better access to the East End of London, which had expanded its commercial potential in the 19th century. The bridge was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, Princess of Wales in 1894.
The Severn Valley Railway is a heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The 16-mile (26 km) heritage line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route, and crossing the river on the historic Victoria Bridge.
The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, to Fife, at North Queensferry. It replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists and pedestrians across the Forth; railway crossings are made by the nearby Forth Bridge, opened in 1890.
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The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely complete by 1980, though a non-motorway section around Briton Ferry bridge remained until 1993. On the opening of the Second Severn Crossing in 1996, the M4 was rerouted over it.
The Second Severn Crossing, officially renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge since July 2018, is the M4 motorway bridge over the River Severn between England and Wales, inaugurated on 5 June 1996 by the Prince of Wales to supplement the traffic capacity of the Severn Bridge built in 1966. The bridge is operated by England's National Highways. It has a total length of 5,128 metres (16,824 ft).
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Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in west London. It links the southern part of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side of the river, and Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, on the south side of the river. The current bridge, which is Grade II* listed and was designed by civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, is the second permanent bridge on the site, and has been attacked three times by Irish republicans. It was closed indefinitely to all motor traffic in April 2019 after cracks were discovered in the bridge's pedestals. The closure was extended to pedestrians and cyclists between August 2020 and July 2021 when limited use resumed.
The Ha'penny Bridge, known later for a time as the Penny Ha'penny Bridge, and officially the Liffey Bridge, is a pedestrian bridge built in May 1816 over the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland. Made of cast iron, the bridge was cast in Shropshire, England.
The Quarry is the main recreational park in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England. The park was created in 1719 and encompasses 29 acres. It is listed Grade II in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens. With a location within easy walking distance of Shrewsbury town centre, Shrewsbury Sixth Form College and Shrewsbury School, it is the most heavily used public park within the county.
The Severn Bridge is a motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn road crossing between England and Wales, and took three and a half years to build, at a cost of £8 million. It replaced the 137-year-old Aust Ferry.
The Iron Bridge is a cast iron arch bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781, it was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron. Its success inspired the widespread use of cast iron as a structural material, and today the bridge is celebrated as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution.
Aust Ferry or Beachley Ferry was a ferry service that operated across the River Severn between Aust and Beachley, both in Gloucestershire, England. Before the Severn Bridge opened in 1966, it provided service for road traffic crossing between the West Country and South Wales. The nearest fixed crossing was a 60-mile (97 km) round trip to Gloucester.
Jackfield is a village in Shropshire, England, lying on the south bank of River Severn in the Ironbridge Gorge, downstream from Ironbridge.
The Victoria Bridge crosses the River Severn between Arley and Bewdley in Worcestershire, England. At the time of its construction, the 200-foot railway bridge was the longest single span cast iron bridge in Britain.
Hampton Loade Ferry was a pedestrian cable ferry linking the villages of Hampton Loade and Hampton across the River Severn in the English county of Shropshire and providing a link to Hampton Loade village from Hampton Loade station on the heritage Severn Valley Railway, in Hampton village.
Shrewsbury is a market town and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, 150 miles (240 km) north-west of London; at the 2011 census, it had a population of 71,715.
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