SALTASH RR BRIDGE (AKA Royal Albert Bridge) 1854-9 Brunel Saltash, Cornwall/Devon N50o 24’ 24.5” W4o 11’ 51.8”
Brunel designed this bridge to carry The Great Western Railroad from Devon into Cornwall over the River Tamar. There are two spans of 465 feet resting on a single masonry pier resting within a cast iron coffer dam. Each of the 1000 ton sections of the bridge was lifted into position by hydraulic jacks before an awe-sruck crowd. Brunel directed the operation by means of flags and numbered plaquards.
It is interesting to note that the iron work commissioned for Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge was sold to the South Devon Railway Company to be used for this bridge when the Clifton Bridge sponsors went bankrupt. The Saltash Bridge is an extremely original design and illustrates what the ‘new’ iron of our story was capable of achieving when used by a designer of genius.
The three very tall granite pylons support two elliptical balloon-like arched tubes (16’ high and 9’ wide) from which the bridge deck is suspended by tie rods. To further support the deck, there are suspension chains from the pylons to the decking. However, they cannot extend past the pylons to be anchored on shore in the usual manner (because of the long approach viaducts), so they terminate in the pylon. Their great inward pull on the pylons is counteracted by the great curved tubes.
One can view the bridge without crossing it: there is a western Bridge Business Office with a parking lot at the southern approach of A38 from Devon.