Our thanks to Jason Nolan (Plymography on Flickr) for sharing this beautiful photo of the Royal Albert Bridge in his hometown of Plymouth, Devon, England. (To see a larger version of this photo on Flickr, please click on the image at the left.)

The follow information is from Wikipedia:

The Royal Albert Bridge (sometimes called the Brunel Bridge or Saltash Bridge) spans the River Tamar in the United Kingdom between Plymouth, on the Devon bank, and Saltash on the Cornish bank. It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and carries the Cornish Main Line in and out of Cornwall. Close alongside on the north of the Royal Albert Bridge is the Tamar Bridge carrying the A38, one of the two trunk roads connecting Cornwall to Devon.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British engineer. He is best known for the creation of the Great Western Railway, a series of famous steamships, including the first with a propeller, and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern day engineering.

Throughout his railway building, but particularly on the South Devon and Cornwall Railways where economy was needed and there were many valleys to cross, Brunel made extensive use of wood for the construction of substantial viaducts; these have had to be replaced over the years.

The Royal Albert Bridge was designed in 1855 for the Cornwall Railway Company, after Parliament rejected his original plan for a train ferry across the Hamoaze— the estuary of the tidal Tamar, Tavy and Lynher. The bridge (of bowstring girder or tied arch construction) consists of two main spans of 455 ft (139 m), 100 ft (30 m) above mean high spring tide, plus 17 much shorter approach spans. Opened by Prince Albert on 2 May 1859, it was completed in the year of Brunel’s death.

This photo is representative of a group of photographers on Flickr callled Bridges in the UK. Bridgepix is proud to tbe the administrator of this group which currently has 1,100+ members with 9,500+ photos. To see these beautiful photos, please click Bridges in the UK.