Plimsoll Bridge

The Plimsoll Bridge crosses the Floating Harbour at the Cumberland Basin in Bristol is a Swing Bridge in order to let shipping progress beyond the bridge. It was designed by the city engineers, with consulting engineers Freeman Fox & Partners, and built by McAlpines, with the machinery supplied by Arrols.

Opened in 1965, the bridge replaced Brunell's Swivel Bridge, and forms part of the first 'multi level interchange' in Bristol, being just a small part of the much larger Cumberland Basin Junction that surrounds it. It carries the A3029 across the Avon from the A370 which diverges at Ashton Gate to the south, and the A4 which is met a little to the north.

The bridge itself is a steel structure, with a central pivot which lies between two channels. Both were once locks, but one has now been blocked to boats. The steel structure carries two cantilevers which in turn carry the full D2 dual carriageway over the harbour. Additionally, standard concrete spans on either side of the swing section carry the A3029 over sliproads connecting to the A4