UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND

England

Region: South West England

Unitary Authority anad County: Bristol

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Bristol is situated on the river Avon (Bristol Avon) where the river cuts through the limestone to form the Avon Gorge before the river flows into the Severn Estuary. The City, County and Unitary Authority of Bristol lies between Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the South. The city has a population of 463,400 (2017), the urban area population of 724,000 is the 8th-largest in the UK.

Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon, and around the beginning of the 11th century, the settlement was known as Brycgstow (Old English "the place at the bridge"). Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373 when it became a county of itself. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities, after London. Bristol was surpassed by the rapid rise of Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool in the Industrial Revolution.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Since opening in 1864, it has been a toll bridge, the income from which provides funds for its maintenance. It is a grade I listed building and forms part of the B3129 road. The idea of building a bridge across the Avon Gorge originated in 1753. Original plans were for a stone bridge and later iterations were for a wrought iron structure. In 1831, an attempt to build Isambard Kingdom Brunel's design was halted by the Bristol riots, and the revised version (by William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw) of his designs was built after his death and completed in 1864. Although similar in size, the bridge towers are not identical in design, the Clifton tower having side cut-outs, the Leigh tower more pointed arches atop a 34 m red sandstone-clad abutment. Roller-mounted "saddles" at the top of each tower allow movement of the three independent wrought iron chains on each side when loads pass over the bridge. The bridge deck is suspended by 162 vertical wrought-iron rods in 81 matching pairs.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol]