}
Bristol Bridge Rebuilt
...a bridge built on both sides, like London Bridge, and as much crowded with a strange mixture of seamen, women, children, loaded horses, asses, and sledges with goods, dragging along together, without posts to separate them.
Alexander Pope,1739
Bristol Bridge was rebuilt for the second time in the 1760s. A fire had destroyed many of the timber-framed houses it supported in 1647 and the level of traffic it carried had increased to dangerous levels. The houses on London Bridge had been cleared away and Bristol followed suit. Demolition began in 1760 and architect James Bridges was commissioned to design its replacement, which had three arches instead of four. A new quay wall was built on the north side and the Redcliffe wall on the south enlarged so that the new bridge was much shorter than its predecessor. Bridges used 'caissons' to create a temporary wooden structure to allow masonry work to go on in the river - this may well have been the first time this was attempted outside the capital. The new bridge opened in 1768 and led to many of the roads leading to it also having to be improved and a ripple of redevelopment that gradually spread across the city.
Unfortunately Bridges didn't see the work completed - he wasn't well looked after by the Council and his rivals schemed against him so successfully that he resigned and left for the West Indies.
Alexander Pope,1739
Bristol Bridge was rebuilt for the second time in the 1760s. A fire had destroyed many of the timber-framed houses it supported in 1647 and the level of traffic it carried had increased to dangerous levels. The houses on London Bridge had been cleared away and Bristol followed suit. Demolition began in 1760 and architect James Bridges was commissioned to design its replacement, which had three arches instead of four. A new quay wall was built on the north side and the Redcliffe wall on the south enlarged so that the new bridge was much shorter than its predecessor. Bridges used 'caissons' to create a temporary wooden structure to allow masonry work to go on in the river - this may well have been the first time this was attempted outside the capital. The new bridge opened in 1768 and led to many of the roads leading to it also having to be improved and a ripple of redevelopment that gradually spread across the city.
Unfortunately Bridges didn't see the work completed - he wasn't well looked after by the Council and his rivals schemed against him so successfully that he resigned and left for the West Indies.