An intriguing view of Bristol, covering only bridges that can be walked across and spanning waterways. From the Avonmouth Bridge to St Annes at the end of the Feeder, if you are clever, you can cross each one only once, total distance ironically 45km.

As you might expect Bristol Bridge is the oldest, starting as wooden bridge in 1000AD and remained the only bridge in this context until 19^th century. Did you know that St Nicholas Church was moved to the west of the Hight Street to improve access?

Jeff categorised the bridges to six types, 12 Floating Harbour, 9 Railways, 5 Ferry Replacement, 8 Car, 9 Leisure & Pleasure, 2 Sail. Histories of Bedminster Bridge 1883 and Bath Bridge 1809 were covered. Ashton Avenue Swing Bridge once had two levels, road over the dock railway. Alas only the bottom deck remains but you can still see the overhead girders.

The talk finished with questions from the attentive audience. If you cannot work out the one crossing puzzle, then there is a book “From Brycgstow to Bristol in 45 Bridges” and route maps online.