A lost Liverpool road that allowed cars to access ferries at the Pier Head would fall and rise with the tide.
Known as the Floating Road, or the Floating Bridge, it was once the only way for cars to travel across to Birkenhead. The floating road, which was supported on pontoons that rose and fell with the tide, connected St Nicholas' Place near the waterfront to the Prince's Dock Landing Stage.
Built around 1874, not long after the overhead railway first opened, the Floating Road allowed vehicles to drive straight to the landing stage and board the luggage ferries, whatever the state of the tide. In the 1930s, the roadway was a popular access point used by horse-drawn carts, cattle trotting off to market, steam wagons and lorries full of cargo unloaded from ships.
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The opening of the Birkenhead (Queensway) Tunnel in 1934 effectively ended the need for cross-river travel via the old luggage ferries. The tunnel was built to reduce the long queues of vehicles that would form around the Pier Head and down the Floating Road to the landing stage.
However, it wasn't just cars and lorries that used the floating roadway; pedestrians were allowed to use the foot-walks but were warned to keep clear of the tracks used by vehicles. In 2004, one Liverpool ECHO reporter recalled their memories of the now lost road.
The reporter wrote: "The old [Queensway] tunnel was completed 70 years ago. I wonder how many people remember that before this the only way to get to Birkenhead by car was by ferry.
"I visited my uncles on Sundays in Birkenhead (where I was born). Our car was driven down the floating road way (which is no more) down to the ferry. I doubt if 30 vehicles could be loaded at a time."
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Whenever photographs of the Floating Road are posted online, people have been keen to share their memories. Next to a photograph of the road posted on Pinterest, one person said: "OMG I was petrified of this as a child when we went for the Ferry 'over the water '".
When another photograph was shared on the YoLiverpool Twitter page, more people were happy to share their memories of the road. Chris Iles said: "[I] used to love walking along the floating road."
While John McCrystal posted: "When the river was rough as kids we’d go to the floating bridge. Used to surge up and down with the waves. Better than the rides in New Brighton fair - and free."
A new floating landing stage for boarding ferries was opened at the Pier Head in 1975. Eventually, the old Floating Road was dismantled and scrapped. The once vital connecting road to the landing stage has now gone forever, but it remains a vivid memory for many day-trippers who once used it as part of their journey across the River Mersey.
