Royal Albert Bridge - Brunel's greatest viaduct

The Royal Albert Railway Bridge at Saltash
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In 1846 it was decided that Cornwall should be linked by rail with the rest of the UK's network. This however posed a problem in the shape of the River Tamar, which cut through the prospective route. Even at its narrowest point the River Tamar was over 1000 feet wide. In fact the total distance to be spanned was 1100ft, between Plymouth on one side and Saltash on the other.

Brunel's broad gauge railway was already running in Cornwall and had been slowly but eventually embraced by the locals, whose concerns about the weight of the railway on mines and timber viaducts were settled by experience. This also decided that it would be Isambard Kingdom Brunel who built the new viaduct.

Despite the range of timber viaducts he had already built through Cornwall and Devon, this span required something more. Brunel first considered a timber bridge, but rejected the idea as the gap between spans was too short - six seperate spans would be required.

Timber would not be strong enough. This bridge would need iron.

Originally Brunel designed a single span across the river, but the navy objected that it was too low for their ships to pass beneath and the design was rejected. Eventually he settled on the design we see today - two spans with a single central support mid-river. Each span was 455ft long, but this presented another problem as there was nowhere to anchor the supporting chains. The solution was self-supporting trusses, the graceful arcs that make the bridge instantly recogniseable today.

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The bridge finally opened in May 1859 and public reaction in Cornwall was delight. The Royal Albert Bridge was part of the Cornwall Railway, a broad gauge railway that was part of the Great Western network. The bridge was the final step that connected the Cornish railway with the rest of the country. Built with only one track, as the funds to widen the bridge for a second were not available, Cornish farmers in particular benefited from the ability to ship their products cheaply and fast.

One sad note was that Brunel was not there to see it. Ill from the the stress of his last project, the Great Eastern, Brunel was already suffering the illness that would lead to the stroke that killed him. He saw the complete bridge only once, when a special train pulled him slowly across the bridge to allow him to examine his workmanship. In September 1959 he died.

When the change to narrow gauge was proposed, Cornwall was one of the last places in the country to switch. Slow to adopt the railway, the Cornish held on to their broad gauge with fervor. Nonetheless in 1892 the Royal Albert Bridge, like the rest of the GWR, was finally converted to narrow gauge.