Transporter bridge

A transporter bridge (also ferry bridge or aerial transfer bridge) is a type of movable bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river. The gondola is slung from a tall span by wires or a metal frame. The design has been used to cross navigable rivers or other bodies of water, where there is a requirement for ship traffic to be able to pass. This has been a rare type of bridge, with fewer than two dozen built. Just twelve, including one converted into a lift bridge and one designed as, but not yet operating as, a transporter bridge, continue to be used today.

History

The Vizcaya Bridge in Portugalete is a World Heritage Site

The Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, the gondola can carry 200 people, 9 cars or 6 cars and one minibus.

The Newport Transporter Bridge can carry 6 cars and 120 passengers

The first transporter bridge, Vizcaya Bridge was built in Portugalete, Spain in 1893. The design from Alberto Palacio^[1] inspired others to attempt similar structures. The idea found use where it was seen as impractical to build the long approach ramps that would be required to reach a high span, and in places where ferries are not easily able to cross. Because transporter bridges can carry only a limited load, the idea was little used after the rise of the automobile.

The first such bridge built in France, the 1898 Rouen bridge crossing the Seine, was destroyed by the French army to slow down German troops in World War II. Transporter bridges were popular in France, where five were erected and another partially completed.

The United Kingdom has four transporter bridges, though Warrington Transporter Bridge is disused and the modern Royal Victoria Dock Bridge, though designed with the potential to be used as a transporter bridge, has so far only been used as a high-level footbridge. The Newport Transporter Bridge was built in 1906 across the River Usk in Newport. Because the river banks are very low at the crossing point (a few miles south of the city centre) a traditional bridge would need a very long approach ramp and a ferry could not be used at low tide. The Newport bridge was a Ferdinand Arnodin design.^[2] The Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge crossing the River Tees, featured in the 2002 series of the popular British TV show Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, supposedly being dismantled and re-erected in Arizona, USA.^[3]. The Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge, demolished in the early 1960s, was the first of its type in Britain, and the largest ever built.

In the United States, two such bridges were built. The first was the Aerial Bridge built in Duluth, Minnesota in 1905, although the city had originally planned to build a vertical lift bridge at the site. The transporter design was used for about 25 years before the structure was reconfigured to lift a central span in 1930.

The second American transporter bridge was different from other designs and partially resembled gondola lifts used in mountainous regions. The Sky Ride was part of the 1933–34 Chicago World's Fair ("Century of Progress"), it was taken down after standing for just two years. However, it was the longest bridge of this type ever built at the time.

Four transporter bridges exist in Germany, including the historic bridges in Rendsburg and Osten. One unique example is the bridge at Rendsburg, which is actually two bridges in one. A railroad link crosses high above on the top span, and the suspended ferry carries traffic on the valley floor.

The Soviets built the longest recorded transporter bridge, two decades later, in Stalingrad (now Volgograd).

Known transporter bridges

Surviving

Former

See also

Osten Transporter Bridge

• Movable bridge for a list of other movable bridge types

References

Rendsburg High Bridge

External links

• BBC Article on the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge
• Warrington Transporter Bridge
• BBC Article on the Bridges of the River Tees
• Structurae: Transporter bridges
• (German) The World of Transporter bridges
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