Two Bridges

Side by side but a hundred years apart.

In the foreground Brunel's iconic railway bridge (1859) and behind it the road bridge (1961)

Viewed from both sides

The River Tamar is spanned by two bridges at Saltash, one for rail and the other for road gtraffic

Looking up stream from the sea.

  

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's,

The Royal Albert Bridge, carrying the rail track, was completed in 1859 and is still going strong.

Looking downstream to the sea

The Tamar Road bridge was opened  in 1963 and traffic volume increases each year.

Bridge workers

 I have no head for heights but these two have no problems.

The Train and the River

This early morning train is leaving Cornwall, at Saltash, and crossing the Tamar to England.

"The Train and the River" is the title of one of the most familiar pieces of jazz music

because it was used to back the opening credits of the timeless film "Jazz on a Summer's Day",

the film of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. 

Click to check it out.

Pas de deux

This synchronous pair were "dancing" on the beach in the shadow of the two bridges across the River Tamar, at Saltash.

Burning off the morning mist (2)

Colour versus Black and White

Burning off the morning mist (1)

Colour versus Black and White

Three stages in the history of a river crossing.

The river in question is the River Tamar

and the crossing point is where it narrows at Saltash Passage.

The sculpture in the foreground, is a memorial to the Ferrymen who for hundreds of years, from the days of muscle power and oars, through to the early days of steam power and on into the 1960s, provided  the main means of crossing the river.

In the middle ground is Brunel's icon railway bridge, completed in 1859, which connected Cornwall, through Plymouth, to the rest of England.

In the background is the Tamar Road Bridge, completed in 1961, which is a major link in the transport infrastructure of the economic region centred on the city of Plymouth.

Bygone Days

Somewhere over the rainbow.