Tamar Bridge

Common card · No. 325051

The Tamar Bridge (Cornish: Pons Tamar) is a suspension bridge over the River Tamar between Saltash in Cornwall and Plymouth in Devon, South West England. It is 335 metres (1,099 ft) long, running adjacent to the Royal Albert Bridge and part of the A38, a main road between the two counties. During the 20th century, there was increasing demand to replace or supplement the Saltash and Torpoint ferries, which could not cope with the rise in motor traffic. The Government refused to prioritise the project, so it was financed by Plymouth City Council and Cornwall County Council. Construction was undertaken by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company and began in 1959. It was unofficially opened in October 1961, with a formal presentation by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in April 1962. A reconstruction of the bridge began in 1999, after it was found to be unable to support a European Union requirement for goods vehicle weights; the work involved building two new parallel decks while the original...

Read on Wikipedia · Image David McCormick, CC BY-SA 3.0