Saltash, Cornwall - Royal Albert (Tamar) Bridge by Hake - BBC postcard c.1970s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Sketch by W. Hake of Brunel's last great Bridge the Royal Albert Bridge over the Tamar - with Saltash station
• Publisher: BBC Hulton Picture Library
• Postally used: no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The Royal Albert Bridge is a railway bridge which spans the River Tamar in England between Plymouth, Devon and Saltash, Cornwall. Its unique design consists of two 455-foot (138.7 m) lenticular iron trusses 100 feet (30.5 m) above the water, with conventional plate-girder approach spans. This gives it a total length of 2,187.5 feet (666.8 m). It carries the Cornish Main Line railway in and out of Cornwall. It is adjacent to the Tamar Bridge which opened in 1962 to carry the A38 road.

The Royal Albert Bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.^[1] Surveying started in 1848 and construction commenced in 1854. The first main span was positioned in 1857 and the completed bridge was opened by Prince Albert on 2 May 1859. Brunel died later that year and his name was then placed above the portals at either end of the bridge as a memorial. Work was carried out during the twentieth century to replace the approach spans and strengthen the main spans. It has attracted sightseers since its construction and has appeared in many paintings, photographs, guidebooks, postage stamps and on the UK £2 coin. Anniversary celebrations took place in 1959 and 2009.

Two rival schemes for a railway to Falmouth, Cornwall, were proposed in the 1830s. The 'central' scheme was a route from Exeter around the north of Dartmoor, an easy route to construct but with little intermediate traffic. The other, the 'coastal' scheme, was a line with many engineering difficulties but which could serve the important naval town of Devonport and the industrial area around St Austell. The central scheme was backed by the London and South Western Railway while the coastal scheme was promoted by the Cornwall Railway and backed by the Great Western Railway which wanted it to join up with the South Devon Railway at Devonport. The Cornwall Railway applied for an Act of Parliament in 1845 but it was rejected, in part because of William Moorsom's plan to carry trains across the water of the Hamoaze on the Devonport-to-Torpoint Ferry. Following this Isambard Kingdom Brunel took over as engineer and proposed to cross the water higher upstream using a bridge at Saltash instead. The Act enabling this scheme was passed on 3 August 1846.^[2]

The structure was the third in a series of three large wrought iron bridges built in the middle of the nineteenth century and was influenced by the preceding two, both of which had been designed by Robert Stephenson. The two central sections of Brunel's bridge are novel adaptations of the design Stephenson employed for the High Level Bridge across the River Tyne in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1849. Brunel was present when Stephenson raised the girders of his Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait in the same year.^[3] From 1849 to 1853 Brunel was erecting an iron bridge of his own; the Chepstow Bridge carried the South Wales Railway across the River Wye and featured a main truss of 300 feet (91 m) with a curving tubular main member and three conventional plate-girder approach spans of 100 feet (30 m), a similar solution to that adopted for crossing the River Tamar at Saltash.^[4]

The river is about 1,100 feet (340 m) wide at Saltash. Brunel's first thoughts had been to cross this on a double track timber viaduct with a central span of 255 feet (78 m) and six approach spans of 105 feet (32 m) with 80 feet (24 m) clearance above the water. This was rejected by the Admiralty, who had statutory responsibility for navigable waters, so Brunel produced a revised design to give 100 feet (30 m) clearance, with two spans of 300 feet (91 m) and two of 200 feet (61 m).^[5] The Admiralty again rejected this plan, stipulating that there should not be more than one pier in the navigable part of the river.

Brunel now abandoned plans for a double track timber structure and instead proposed a single track wrought iron design consisting of a single 850-foot (259.1 m) span. As the cost of this structure would have been around £500,000 at 1846 prices (equivalent to £44,440,000 in 2016),^[6] he amended the design to one of two main spans of 455 feet (138.7 m) with 100 feet (30.5 m) clearance above mean high spring tide; this was approved by the Admiralty and the directors of the Cornwall Railway.^[7]

The two spans are lenticular trusses with the top chord of each truss comprising a heavy tubular arch in compression, while the bottom chord comprises a pair of chains. Each of the trusses is simply supported and therefore no horizontal thrust is exerted on the piers, which is crucial in view of the curved track on either side. Between these two chords are supporting cross-bracing members and suspension standards which hang beneath the bottom chord to carry the railway deck which is a continuous plate beam. There are also seventeen much shorter and more conventional plate-girder approach spans on the shore. On the Cornish side there are ten which measure (from Saltash station towards the river): 67.5 feet (20.6 m), 69.5 feet (21.2 m), 69.5 feet (21.2 m), 69.5 feet (21.2 m), 69.5 feet (21.2 m), 69.5 feet (21.2 m), 72.5 feet (22.1 m), 78.0 feet (23.8 m), 83.5 feet (25.5 m), 93.0 feet (28.3 m), and seven on the Devon side of (from the river towards St Budeaux): 93.0 feet (28.3 m), 83.5 feet (25.5 m), 78.0 feet (23.8 m), 72.5 feet (22.1 m), 69.5 feet (21.2 m), 69.5 feet (21.2 m), 69.5 feet (21.2 m). This gives a total length for the nineteen spans of 2,187.5 feet (666.8 m).^[4]