Border crossing named as world’s oldest vehicle suspension bridge by Guinness World Records

The Union Chain Bridge, which spans the Border over the Tweed, celebrates its 2 hundredth birthday subsequent Sunday with recognition from Guinness World Information because the world’s oldest suspension bridge nonetheless carrying automobiles.

The landmark engineering achievement close to Berwick was the creation of a Royal Navy captain who had proved the worth of chains.

It paved the way in which for crossings such because the Forth Street Bridge, which grew to become the world’s longest suspension bridge exterior the US when it opened in 1964.

Nonetheless, plans to mark the Union Chain Bridge’s bicentenary have been severely curtailed due to Covid-19.

A symposium of main international bridge engineers has been changed by their lectures being revealed in a commemorative ebook, that includes a report from The Scotsman concerning the bridge’s building on the again cowl.

A celebration live performance at close by Paxton Home has been postponed till subsequent yr.

However after years of concern concerning the crossing’s dilapidated state, a £10.5m restoration undertaking is because of begin subsequent month.

Chairman Robert Hunter mentioned: “Captain Samuel Brown’s radical design was to be the primary transport-bearing suspension bridge in Europe and, at its completion, the longest suspension bridge on the earth.

“It will allow crossings beforehand thought of unimaginable to be bridged.”

The chains, designed for ships’ anchors, helped scale back the associated fee to at least one quarter of that of a masonry bridge.

Captain Brown had beforehand constructed an experimental suspension footbridge and was granted letters patent in 1817 for the design and manufacture of “iron bridges of suspension”.

Mr Hunter mentioned: “The crowds who thronged the river financial institution and sat in boats on that summer time’s day, relatively just like the crowds who watched the launching of area rockets from Cape Canaveral 150 years later, have been in awe of the occasions earlier than them but in addition had a certain quantity of scepticism that this was doable.

“To win he belief of the spectators that the bridge was protected, Captain Brown went throughout the bridge in his carriage adopted by 12 double-horse carts laden with stones to show its energy.

“These have been adopted by the Earl of Dwelling, the Commissioners of Roads, preceded by the Bands of the Berwickshire and Northumberland militia enjoying the Nationwide Anthem.

“This received the belief of the crowds, who then swarmed throughout the bridge.”

Outstanding engineers resembling Robert Stephenson attended the opening, whereas Isambard Kingdom Brunel later visited.

Professor Roland Paxton of Heriot-Watt College, and co-patron of the Pals, who edited the ebook, mentioned: “Union Bridge established a brand new period in long-span bridge growth that led to the Brooklyn, Golden Gate, Humber and the current longest span of almost 2km at Akashi Strait in Japan.

“So Union Bridge is in nice firm.

“A global wide-ranging celebratory bicentenary symposium grew to become a casualty of Covid-19, however its imaginative and prescient continues within the now-published ebook of speaker essays Spanning the Centuries.”

‘Most bold cross-border endeavour’

The Scotsman’s report, which it options, mentioned scientific onlookers “admired very a lot this curious specimen of the humanities, so properly adjusted in all its components, whereas on the similar time they thought of it, in a nationwide perspective, of a lot significance.”

The bridge is believed to have been constructed to hold coal and lime from Northumberland to Berwickshire to enhance farmland.

Northumberland County councillor Glen Sanderson mentioned of the restoration scheme, which has been devised with Scottish Borders Council and different funding our bodies: “It is a actually nice undertaking which should be the most important and most bold cross-border and cross-council joint endeavour ever.”

Spanning the Centuries is accessible for £7.50 plus £2 postage from The Pals of Union Chain Bridge, Chain Bridge Home, Horncliffe, Berwick-upon-Tweed TD15 2XT.

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