A nice long Bath

I was pleased to find the other film I took while visiting the city (see this previous post ): We had some splendid early morning sunshine. Perhaps a little harsh, but it served to show the building shapes.

Let's start with a hot bath here at the old bath house...

And this is the view across the circus, a circular Georgian masterpiece. I am so pleased they have preserved the look of the buildings. Its a strange thought that each of these houses must get larger as you go from front to back, but none of the rooms can be square, surely...

To the west of the city, spanning the Avon is the Victoria Bridge, designed by James Dredge in 1836. It has the look of a suspension bridge but apparently it isn't. Instead it a form of double cantilever bridge and the first of its kind. Before Steel was invented, you had to use forged Iron, which was very expensive. Dredge (a brewer amongst other things by trade) needed a bridge to move materials to his factory, so he invented and designed his own (like you do). 

The roadway is supported by a set of iron chains with giant pins every five feet or so. At each pin an iron link goes down to the roadway and the chain is made one link narrower. This saves weight and also cost.

 

However the descending links are not vertical, they act to pull the roadway back towards the stone towers, and it is this action that turns the construction from a plain suspension bridge to a cantilever variation. Apparently...

Dredge went on to be a fairly successful bridge builder, though few of his designs remain standing. This, his first attempt, was perhaps a little over engineered, and has survived 170 years. Don't expect to drive over it these days however.

PS. I just had a count up. I've placed two hundred pictures on this blog in just over a month. (!)