A bridge too far? Make your way around Bristol’s 45 crossings A
A newly-published book, accompanied by some stunning photos, looks at all of Bristol’s bridges and some of the stories behind them. And if you walk across them all you can win a badge. Eugene Byrne reports.
NEW book about all of Bristol’s bridges promises 45 bridges and 45km of walking and 1,000 years of history. Walk them all (45km is about 28 miles, but you don’t have to do it all in one go) and you will find yourself being taken through some of Bristol’s most fascinating nooks and crannies.
Just published, From Brycgstow To Bristol In 45 Bridges looks at each of the city’s bridges, from the oldest to the newest, and tells us all about each – why they were built, who was involved in its design and construction and the dramatic or odd events that took place on or near them.
Among the historic bridgerelated episodes that author Jeff Lucas recounts are the Bristol Bridge massacre of 1793, the Bathurst Basin naptha explosion of 1888, and the gas-workers strike of 1889.
Jeff Lucas is also a photographer of some renown, and he took the 120 colour pictures used in the book. Many of these make apparently mundane structures that we take for granted look quite beautiful.
“There were two main photographic challenges,” he told BT. “The first was to have enough patience to wait for the right light conditions for the bridge in question. The second was to avoid repeating the same kind of shot for 45 bridges.
“A great help here was the amazing variety of style and construction methods I found among them. The bridge which was the least fun to photograph was the South Entrance Lock Walkway. Although it’s an important item of ‘kit’, which prevents wayward boats from striking the end of the Plimsoll bridge when the bridge is open, it’s just a concrete walkway. At the South Entrance Lock.”
So in his wanderings around the local bridges in search of the perfect shot of each, he must have some favourites? Many, though forced to choose, he opts for the newest.
“The footbridge leading to Temple Island (formerly Arena Island) that has been named the St Philips Footbridge. It is a difficult site for a bridge. The drop in height between each side is several metres and there is restricted ‘landing space’ on the south bank.
“The designers came up with a brilliant solution using clever engineering and a bit of visual deception. The result is unusual and unique, very sleek and minimalist, and it looks effortless!”
And his least favourite?
“In its current manifestation, Marsh Bridge. The modern bridge is just a flat slab of road with a boring balustrade in a sterile area. A great pity, as the Victorian bridge did have some character and it used to be a major pedestrian thoroughfare in the late 1800s when St Philips was a thriving community.
“And it had its moment of high drama during the gas-workers’ strike of 1889 as the place where a contingent of strike-breakers were turned back by a crowd of thousands who had blocked the bridge.”
As for new bridges, Jeff suggests a footbridge over the Avon between Conham and Hanham Green to connect the Eastwood Nature reserve with the woodlands and the Avon Way on the opposite bank.
“The east of the city has long been neglected in terms of connectivity between the riverbanks,” he says.
The book would be interesting enough if it was just pictures and history, but this one comes with an intriguing bonus which deserves to make it a subject of conversation for years to come.
At the end is a 45km circular walk takes you from inner city to the Severn Estuary and then back again, and is the solution to a mesmerising historical puzzle known as The Königsberg Bridge Problem: how to walk around a given set of bridges, crossing each one only once.
The problem was originally
solved by Thilo Gross, a young mathematician who worked at Bristol University and who here contributes a chapter about the bridge problem, its importance to mathematics and the modern world, and how he solved it for Bristol.
His ‘Bridge Problem’ solution was first published in the Post in 2013, and he and Jeff believe that Bristol was the first city in the world to do so, followed a year later by New York.
Since 2013, four new bridges have been built, which made it necessary to come up with a completely different route. “We have also,” says Jeff, refined the definition of what bridges to include, so that a couple of very minor bridges on tributaries are no longer included. Hence the total is now 45 – it was 43 in 2013.
“This walk will take you into strange and not-so-strange places where you will discover the delightful and the dreadful! I hope readers will enjoy exploring Bristol in this new and unusual way.”
» From Brycgstow To Bristol In 45 Bridges by Jeff Lucas and Thilo Gross is available from local bookshops or online from www. bristolbooks.org, price £18.
» Jeff Lucas will be giving a talk about Bristol’s bridges, the book and the walking route for Bristol Civic Society on Wednesday, October 16, at the Friends Meeting House, 126 Hampton Road, Redland at 7.30pm. All welcome.
Admission charge not confirmed, but it should be modest.
» All photos accompanying this article are © Jeff Lucas. BT asked him to send us photos of some of his favourite historical Bristol bridges. Naturally Clifton Suspension Bridge was not allowed as it’s obviously everyone’s favourite already…