NEWPORT TRANSPORTER BRIDGE

The location for our photoshoot was on the remarkable newport Transporter Bridge, which is one of only two such structures left in the UK. Costing £98,000 to originally build, the bridge first opened to traffic in 1906 and has dominated the newport skyline ever since. The newport Transporter Bridge spans the river usk in South Wales and was originally built to allow deep-sea shipping to pass safely underneath it. This Grade 1 listed structure can really be described as a suspended ‘ferry’ that operates far more efficiently than conventional water borne craft.

a high level boom suspended from tall towers at each end of the bridge carries the rail track on which a moving carriage or ‘traveller’ runs. a 36 tonne moving gondola or platform suspended from the carriage is pulled from one side of the river to the other by means of a hauling cable powered by twin 35 horsepower electric motors that move the gondola at three metres per second. We’re very grateful to the bridge’s operators for allowing access to this magnificent structure to photograph Paul Ford’s MGC and more information about this historic ‘floating’ bridge can be found at: http://www.newport.gov.uk/heritage/Transporter-Bridge/Transporter-Bridge