Clifton Suspension Bridge Temple Meads Station

• Designed by • The original Brunel, work station, designed began on the by Brunel, bridge in 1831. included an • Cold winters, engine shed, riots and a lack ticket office and of money meant passenger hall. that, by 1853, all work on Clifton Suspension Bridge •  The first train from the bridge had stopped. London to Bristol on CITY CENTRE Brunel’s Great Western Railway • Following Brunel’s death in CLIFTON 1859, engineers John Hawkshaw arrived in 1841. and William Henry Barlow finished •  The current main entrance to the the bridge in his memory. They improved station was added in 1870, and Brunel’s design, even engineering a new the Brunel-designed buildings deck for the bridge. closed in 1965. • When the bridge opened in December 1864, thousands of people came to Bristol HOTWELLS to celebrate. SS Great Britain Bristol Temple Meads

Did you know? M Shed The bridge is 214 metres long Underfall Yard – the same length as 18 buses. SOUTHVILLE Each tower holding up the bridge weighs 4,000 tonnes – as heavy as 572 elephants!

Underfall Yard SS Great Britain SS Great Western

• In its early days, Bristol’s Floating •  Designed by Brunel, the •  The first ship designed by Brunel, the Harbour kept filling up with mud, SS Great Britain was built in SS Great Western, was a wooden-hulled making it difficult for ships to use. the Great Western Dockyard paddle steamer. • In the 1830s, Brunel helped Bristol using over 60,000 metal rivets. •  She was built at William Patterson’s to manage its mud. He made •  Launched on 19 July 1843, shipbuilding yard which is now the site improvements to the she was the world’s first of M Shed and Wapping Wharf. “Underfalls”, the tunnels Did you know? screw-propelled, oceangoing, Did you know? •  She made her first crossing between Bristol that open to let water and Before Brunel’s improvements, parts iron-hulled steam ship. and New York in 1838, taking 15 days. mud out of the harbour. of the harbour had to be emptied for •  She sailed around the world There was a firework display at Bristol • Brunel also suggested the mud to be dug out by hand. 32 times, travelling more Zoo to celebrate the ship’s launch. using dredgers, a special than 1,000,000 miles at sea. boat for dealing with mud. The “Underfalls” are still used •  In 1970 she returned to Due to her size, the entrance • The “Underfalls” have every single day and help Bristol, passing under the to Bristol Harbour had to be been changed several prevent flooding in Bristol. Clifton Suspension Bridge widened to let her out! times over the years. for the first and only time.