As the River Avon flows through Bristol on it's way to the Bristol Channel, it passes between the towering Avon Gorge, sheer, rocky escarpments with no place upon which to build a crossing point.
Thus, in 1829, a competition was set to choose a design for a bridge to effect that crossing, and was presided over by Thomas Telford, constructor of The Menai Straits Bridge in North Wales.
All the initial proposals were rejected, including four separate submissions from Brunel. Brunel's plans included spans of up to 900 feet, which Telford thought to be unsafe and impossible (his Welsh bridge having a span of just 580 feet and believing 600 feet to be the safe and practical limit).
Telford then considered his own design incorporating three spans, but this meant building massive stone supports up from the river bed, which was far too costly and totally impractical, so a second competition was set in 1830, which Brunel won and was duly appointed engineer-in-charge.
This new design featured a single span of 630 feet, the deck being 240 feet above the high water mark of the tidal river below. To effect this design, the south side of the bridge was supported by massive stone abutments, reducing the required span by many feet. The construction was, however, plagued with problems, not least of all a shortage of funding and the bridge was not finally completed until 1864, 33 years after it's start. Brunel never lived to see his beautiful masterpiece; he died in 1859 five years before it's completion, a sad irony indeed.
Today, the bridge is open to light traffic and pedestrians and affords marvellous views along the gorge in either direction. It also has a somewhat macabre reputation as "the most used suicide jump in the UK", with many people choosing to leap to their deaths. Recent programmes have seen the unfortunate introduction of higher railings and side nets to catch the jumpers, which has detracted from the appearance of this wonderful piece of engineering.