The Royal Albert Bridge at 150

One of the Westcountry’s most famous landmarks, the railway bridge across the River Tamar at Saltash, marks its 150th birthday in May.

The Royal Albert Bridge - to give it its full name - was opened on 2nd May 1859 by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, and still carries trains today.
The unique structure was designed by the legendary Victorian engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He designed the bridge and eventually took over control of the construction, too.

The main bridge was made in two sections supported by two brick pillars and one cast-iron pillar. The two sections were manufactured on land and floated out onto the river on barges, before being lifted up to their final position. It was a slow job: without modern lifting machines the bridge could only be lifted six feet (1.8m) a week, and the whole operation took eight months.

The bridge is, like the modern road bridge next to it, a ‘suspension’ bridge: the railway track hangs from the structure on chains stretched between the pillars at the ends. However, unlike most suspension bridges, there are no chains attached to the land at either end. Instead, the huge arches above the bridge push back the pillars as the chains try to pull the pillars together.

Brunel did not see the bridge opened; he was already very ill after a lifetime of exceptionally hard work. Instead he was driven over the bridge on a railway wagon a few days later. When Brunel died in September 1859, the words “IK Brunel Engineer” were added to the bridge as a monument to one of Britain’s greatest engineers of all time.

You can see the bridge as you cross the River Tamar on any LAL excursion to Cornwall; or you can take a train to Saltash on Brunel’s Great Western railway line.

Find out more about the bridge at www.royalalbertbridge.co.uk