Description of the attraction
The Clifton Suspension Bridge is located in the suburbs of Bristol, UK. It was built in the years 1836-1864. The bridge spans over the Avon River, its total length is 230 meters, and the span over the river is 190 meters. The author of the project is engineer Izambard Kingdom Brunel.
The need to build a bridge across the gorge of the Avon River arose in the middle of the 18th century, but construction began only a hundred years later. Initially it was planned to build a stone bridge, then a cast-iron one. The construction of the bridge, designed by Brunel, began in 1831, but was interrupted and postponed several times. Brunel died in 1859, and his colleagues at the Institute of Civil Engineers decided that the completion of the bridge would be the best monument to Brunel. In 1860, another bridge, built according to the project of Brunel, was dismantled in London, and the chains from the London bridge went to the construction of the Clifton one. The project was slightly modified, and the bridge became a little wider, taller, and also stronger than originally planned.
The world's first bungee jump (jump from a height on a rubber cable) was performed from this bridge in April 1979.
At the time of massive celebrations in Bristol - such as the International Aeronautics Festival, etc. - the bridge is closed because there is a danger that it will not withstand too heavy loads.
As with many similar structures, the sad glory of the "suicide bridge" was fixed behind this bridge. Now the bridge is fenced with a railing, which is difficult to climb, and at the bridge pillars there are plates with the phones of the Samaritan society.
