Newport Transporter Bridge
| Newport Transporter Bridge | |
|---|---|
The bridge viewed from Coronation Park
|
|
| Carries | Motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians including buses and multi sized lorries. |
| Crosses | River Usk |
| Locale | Newport |
| Official name | Newport Transporter Bridge |
| Maintained by | Newport City Council |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Transporter bridge |
| Total length | 236m (774.28 ft) |
| Width | Three cars (gondola) (total width 108 ft / 33 m) |
| Longest span | 196.56m (644.88 ft) |
| History | |
| Opened | 12 September 1906 |
| Statistics | |
| Toll | Adult Single – £1 Adult Return – £1.50 Child Single – 50p Child Return – £1.00 Day Ticket (inc. unlimited trips on the gondola and walking across the top of the bridge) – £2.75 |
Coordinates: 51°34′14″N 2°59′9″W / 51.57056°N 2.98583°W
The Newport Transporter Bridge (Welsh: Pont Gludo Casnewydd) is a transporter bridge that crosses the River Usk in Newport, South East Wales. The bridge is the lowest crossing on the River Usk. It is a Grade I listed structure. The transporter bridge is very rare, with only eight remaining in use out of a total of twenty built worldwide.
The bridge was designed by French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin. It was built in 1906 and opened by Godfrey Charles Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar on 12 September 1906.
Newport Museum holds a silver cigar cutter which was presented to Viscount Tredegar on the day of the opening, as a memento of the occasion.
The design was chosen because the river banks are very low at the desired crossing point (a few miles south of the city centre) where an ordinary bridge would need a very long approach ramp to attain sufficient height to allow ships to pass under, and a ferry could not be used during low tide at the site.
Interestingly for the time, a Corporation Of Newport drawing dated December 1902 is calibrated in metres.
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Wikipedia