Which severn bridge was built first

The 2,ft Beachley Viaduct is also of similar box girder construction as the Severn Bridge but is supported on steel trestles as it crosses the Beachley peninsula. The Wye Bridge is a 1,ft-long cable-stayed bridge, which crosses the border marked by the River Wye between Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, two miles south of Chepstow in the latter county. It consists of a single large cable stayed section with two single-leg pylons supporting the bridge deck from the centre of the roadway.

The deck is an orthotropic box girder similar to the Severn Bridge but has a different appearance as it has two sets of cable stays on each of two towers. Originally there was only one set of cable stays but these were replaced during the strengthening works. Jump to: navigation , search. Retrieved British Listed Buildings. BBC News Online. Retrieved 2 October The edge of the deck on each side is like a blade, and the wind is smoothly directed over or under the deck.

Without this aerodynamic design, the bridge deck would have been much heavier to withstand the wind pressures, which in turn would have required bigger and more expensive support structures.

The high winds caused many accidents, and the bridge was often closed during gales. In October a contract was signed for construction downstream of the Second Severn Crossing , to deal with growing traffic and provide a less wind-prone route over the estuary.

The new crossing became the M4 route over the estuary when it opened in The old bridge, which takes a less direct route, is now part of the M48 and provides a convenient route between Chepstow and the M4 in England.

View Location Map. In the event Telford's suggestions came to nothing. Cost was a major factor and it was not long before railways came to be considered the main form of transport. When the Severn railway tunnel finally opened in it seemed as if the idea of spanning the river had gone for ever.

By the early years of the 20th century, however, there had been a significant increase in road traffic and in the period immediately following World War One it became clear to everyone that the old ferry boat service was struggling to cope. As early as a Bill was proposed in Parliament, by Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire County Councils, for a bridge over the estuary. But opposition from the Great Western Railway was too strong and the Bill was vetoed.

And so things remained until after the Second World War when proposals were laid for a series of major trunk roads - motorways as they became known - across the length and breadth of Britain.

A road crossing of the Severn river and estuary were seen as a vital part of this network. Planning and building the bridge took time. Things were further delayed by government sponsoring and funding on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland but, finally, construction began in From an early stage in the construction the government announced that they would be recovering at least some of the costs by levying a toll. The original charge for this - in old money - was to be two shillings and sixpence and in those early days tolls were to be collected when motorists were travelling both ways.

The tolls were to be collected on the English side of the river, a fact that caused Welsh poet Harri Webb to write:. The new structure was not just one bridge. It actually consisted of four separate parts. Firstly there was the Aust section, a bridge of box girder design with a concrete deck; then came the Severn Bridge itself, a suspension bridge with cables slung between steel towers; next was the Beachley section, another box girder structure; and finally a cable-stayed bridge over the area where the River Wye flowed into the Severn.

The finished item was a construction of some magnitude and for many months people took trips across the bridge, just to see and experience the new phenomenon. The one thing motorists did not want was to break down on the structure - it cost an arm and a leg to be towed off! With the huge increase in car and lorry use during the final decade of the twentieth century it eventually became clear that the Severn Bridge was not able to sustain the pressure and volume of traffic. Consequently, a second Severn crossing was designed and built, to the seaward side of the original bridge.

This opened on 5 June , carrying the M4 and the original road across the first bridge was renamed the M Since its opening in thousands - millions even - of people have crossed the Severn by the original road bridge. Like so many important pieces of infrastructure in Britain, it has been privatized, sold off to foreign investors and operators but it continues in use, closed only occasionally by high winds and, as happened in , by snow and ice dropping from the steel cables onto the carriageway beneath.

Whether or not the bridge brought prosperity to South Wales remains a matter of conjecture.