Tamar Bridge marks 60th anniversary

Sixty years on, the bridge now carries 16 million vehicles a year, 10 times more than when it was first built

The Tamar Bridge which connects Devon and Cornwall is marking its 60th anniversary.

It runs between Saltash in Cornwall and Plymouth in Devon and opened on 24 October 1961.

Publicly owned, the toll road was the longest of its kind when it first opened.

Sixty years on, the bridge now carries 16 million vehicles a year, 10 times more than when it was first built.

Bridge construction started in 1959 and the structure opened in 1961

Building the bridge was a dangerous job, with seven men dying during its construction.

Geoff Ashton, now 90, was on duty in April 1961 when five workers died when their boat sank.

Construction workers building the bridge before health and safety was high on the agenda

He had been due to get on the boat but decided at the last minute to take the ferry across the river, he recalls that his family struggled with the dangerous job he had taken on.

"I did not mind being at the top of the towers, but it was more difficult for my wife," said Mr Ashton.

"On one occasion I had told her I was not working on the towers.

"Unfortunately a local news crew were doing a story about the construction of the bridge and she saw pictures of me working at the top.

"She was heavily pregnant at the time and needless to say she was not very happy," he said.

The bridge was built as a local enterprise between Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council after repeated attempts to get the government to build a crossing failed

• The bridge, from tower to tower, is 1,099ft (335m) long, but the whole road measures 2,106ft (642m)

• It cost about £1.8m to build, equivalent to about £40m today

• In 1961, 4,000 vehicles a day used the bridge compared to more than 50,000 on peak days today

• The construction, operation, maintenance and improvement of the crossing have all been financed from toll income

• At its highest point, the bridge is 240ft (73m) above the River Tamar

Construction workers were paid danger money to work on the bridge's towers

Work on the Tamar Bridge started in July 1959 and six months after opening to the public it was officially opened by the Queen Mother on 26 April 1962.

To celebrate the opening, residents were given the chance to walk across the Tamar Bridge, before the first car was allowed on it.

Sally Bryson was eight years old when the bridge opened and her family were keen to be the first people across it.

"We all got up early in the morning and we like to think we were the first family across the Tamar Bridge.

"We weren't the first, because there was a man with a caravan, but we did get up early in the dark and it was an adventure."

"I went to school and told my teacher and she was very enthusiastic.

"She told me to tell the headmaster so he could enter it in the school diary as a momentous occasion," she said.

Sally Bryson was one of the first people to travel over the bridge

Johnny Rutherford, BBC Spotlight

As part of the celebrations I was invited on a special tour of the bridge. Richard Cole, the bridge engineer manager, took me on a climb, first under the suspension bridge where a narrow walkway runs just under the road.

It's a little worrying as it wobbles as big trucks go over. Then it was on to the main event, climbing up five sets of vertical ladders inside one of the towers on the Plymouth side.

BBC Spotlight's Johnny Rutherford took a trip up one of the Tamar Bridge's towers as part of the anniversary

It was quite a climb, but once out on top it was worth it. Between the towers that are either side of the road there is a structure that you can walk across on a mesh, which is quite unnerving as below your feet you can see the traffic.

Next, it was up a ladder to the edge of the tower.

It is a fantastic view seeing the Tamar Bridge, the Royal Albert Railway Bridge and the River Tamar.

The bridge was built as a local enterprise between Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council after repeated attempts to get the government to build a crossing failed.

Mary Olszewska, visitor experience manager said the anniversary marked " a very special moment " in the bridge's history.

Special events and exhibitions will run as part of the anniversary celebrations including stories of people's memories of the crossing.