16 photos of the Severn Bridge under construction

The Severn Bridge between England and Wales took three and a half years to build at a cost of £8 million, and was opened exactly 50 years ago on September 8, 1966 by the Queen, who hailed it as the dawn of a new economic era for South Wales.

The new bridge was built to replace the Aust ferry (above). However, it wasn’t the first crossing between England and Wales.

The first Severn Bridge, between Sharpness and Lydney (below), opened in 1879 when Bristol needed a safe and reliable route to South Wales to facilitate the trade of coal.

It operated until October 1960 when one foggy night two fuel-laden tanker barges collided, exploded and drifted upstream destroying the two bridge piers.

Although the swing bridge’s three spans and 21 piers were still standing, it was finally demolished in 1970.

The first proposal for a Severn Bridge bridge between Aust and Chepstow was in 1824 by Thomas Telford, who had been asked to advise on how to improve mail coach services between London and Wales.

No action was taken, and over the next few decades the railways became the dominant mode of long-distance travel, with the Severn Railway Bridge at Sharpness being opened in 1879 and the main line Severn Tunnel in 1886.

However, the growth of road traffic in the early 20th century led to further calls for improvements.

In the early 1920s Chepstow Urban District Council convened a meeting of neighbouring local authorities to consider a Severn crossing to ease congestion and delays on the A48 passing through the town.

In 1935, Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire County Councils jointly promoted a parliamentary bill to obtain powers to build the bridge over the estuary, with 75 per cent of costs to be met by the Ministry of Transport.

However, the Bill was rejected by Parliament after opposition from the Great Western Railway Company.

After World War II, plans began to be made for a nationally funded network of trunk roads, including a Severn Bridge.

The public inquiry into the scheme was held on September 24, 1946 at Bristol University.

However, because Government funding was prioritised for the similar Forth Road Bridge (opened in 1964), construction of the Severn Bridge was not started until 1961.

The substructure was completed in 1963 and the superstructure contract was completed in 1966.

Shortly after the opening of the Severn Bridge, Anglo-Welsh poet Harri Webb wrote Ode on the Severn Bridge:

Two lands at last connected
Across the waters wide,
And all the tolls collected
On the English side.

Originally, tolls were charged in both directions, but the arrangements were changed in the early 1990s to eliminate the need for a set of toll booths for each direction of travel and the potential for traffic waiting to pay the toll backing up onto the bridge itself.

In 1966, the toll for using the new motorway crossing was set at 2s 6d (12.5p) for all vehicles apart from solo motorcycles which enjoyed a reduced toll of 1s (5p).

From 1966 to 1996, the bridge carried the M4 motorway. Upon the completion of the Second Severn Crossing, the motorway from Olveston (England) to Magor (Wales) was renamed the M48.

Read more: Taking on the Bristol bridges challenge