Bridges and viaducts › Royal Albert Bridge

Royal Albert Bridge

Brunel's bridge over the Tamar at Saltash, opened in 1859: two lens-shaped trusses of 455 ft (139 m), the deck 100 ft (30 m) above high water.

unverified Some of these figures haven’t yet been checked against an official source or a published history. What’s in doubt ↓

Four times larger

At 10 px a metre, the scale of the train drawings, so the train is the size it is on its own page. Each is cut from the same drawing.

The centre pier: its masonry base, the iron columns, and the standard where the two trusses meet.

A GWR Class 802 in the eastern span, behind the near girder and the hangers.

The eastern land pier's tower and the end of the eastern truss.

The Life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Civil Engineer Isambard Brunel (jr), Longmans, Green (Project Gutenberg 41210), 1870Chapter VII, pp. 218-219; Plate V; Fig. 12: two spans of 455 ft; truss 56 ft deep at the centre; rise of the tube equal to the dip of the chains; eleven standards, the deck hung at them and midway; tube 16 ft 9 in by 12 ft 3 in; rails 190 ft and truss top 260 ft above the foundation's lowest point (87 ft 6 in below high water); centre pier masonry 35 ft across to about 12 ft above high water, four octagonal columns to the railway; the elevations
Royal Albert Bridge: vital statistics (the 1859 figures) Alex Seal (alextrack.co.uk), read 8 November 2026via alextrack.co.uk vital statistics: roadway 100 ft above high water; total length 2,187 ft 6 in; spans 455 ft
Royal Albert Bridge Wikipedia, read 8 November 2026Royal Albert Bridge: the seventeen approach spans' lengths (they sum, with the main spans, to 2,187 ft 6 in)
Royal Albert Bridge: the main land piers; the approach span piers Alex Seal (alextrack.co.uk), read 8 November 2026main land piers; approach span piers: land piers 29 ft wide by 17 ft thick; approach piers double columns 11 ft square
The Royal Albert Bridge (photograph) Wikimedia Commons (geograph.org.uk)The Royal Albert Bridge (CC BY-SA 2.0): today's look, for checking

The truss's shape (standards' places, the tube's rise and the chains' dip, the piers' towers) is read off the 1870 plate at 4.42 px a foot, scaled by the 455 ft span; the rise and dip are drawn equal, as the Life says (they read 28.6 and 27.2 ft).
The centre pier's masonry top is the Life's 12 ft above high water; the plate draws it about 8 ft.
The approach girders are drawn the main deck's depth; they were replaced in 1908 and 1928-29 and today's depth isn't published.
The ground under the approaches is read off the plate's small general elevation (1.26 px a foot), within about 5 ft.
The 1930s and 1960s added bracing is not drawn: this is the 1859 bridge as the plate shows it, with the deck and girders of the same outline.