Features / Reportage
Clifton Suspension Bridge reveals its secrets
As high as houses, the vaults have the solemn coolness of an Italian church in the midday sun.
Although there are no frescoes to marvel, the stalactites and mortar stains create something akin to impressionist art on the ceiling and walls.
Like thousands of ribbons, the impossibly thin stalactites reach metres in length. Lasting about seven years, they become too long and drop; nature’s contribution to a man-made masterpiece.
is needed now More than ever
People across the world know the Clifton Suspension Bridge, but it has taken more than 140 years for some of its inner secrets to be revealed.
These huge vaults sit beneath both of the bridge’s towers, and now there is an opportunity to see them up close on the Leigh Woods side of Brunel’s masterpiece.
Sealed since the day the bridge opened, experts long believed the abutments were made out of solid stone until in 2002 when a builder replacing paving slabs removed rotten wood to discover the shafts to the forgotten vaults.
Now, following a full survey, a dozen arched vaults hold the secret to the bridge’s strength. Tours began this week after doorways were drilled into the sides of the abutments.
In hi-vis and hard hat, I climbed down into bowels of Brunel’s bridge to get a different perspective on a monument I’ve walked over for years. Climbing through the doorway, the sudden coolness of the vault was engulfing.
“There are secrets to how the bridge was built in these abutments,” explains visitor services manager Laura Hilton, her words stifled by the stillness.
The arches of the vaults help to spread the weight and force it downwards, instead of compressing the weight of the bridge onto the abutment.
Narrow tunnels lead from the main chambers to smaller vaults and enabled builders to access precarious areas during construction.
Started under the direction of Brunel, the abutments became the only part of the bridge to be supervised directly by the engineer before he died.
Although traffic passes only a few metres above the vaults, the chambers would have proved the perfect place to meditate given the atmosphere, but before long, huge drops of water disturb any attempt to linger.
Hilton says that the Suspension Bridge Trust has been inundated with requests for tickets, but are hoping to be able to cater for the demand to experience Bristol’s own impressionist masterpiece whose century-old secrets are only now being revealed.
Abutment tours cost £10 per person and take place fortnightly throughout the summer. For more information and to book tickets, visit www.cliftonbridge.org.uk/visit/events
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