The future of one of the earliest bits of Brunel’s engineering at Bristol’s historic harbourside has been thrown into controversy with opposition growing to a plan to move it halfway along the docks. Brunel’s ‘Swivel Bridge’ dates back to 1849 and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself, as a way of crossing the new lock system he created at the end of the Cumberland Basin.
It is now dwarfed by the Plimsoll Bridge above and is deteriorating rapidly, so the SS Great Britain Trust wants to restore it and move it to become a viewing platform for visitors to its ambitious plans to restore the old Albion Dockyard, halfway along the southern side of the Floating Harbour.
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