Transporter Bridges: An Illustrated History

John Hannavy

feb 2020 · Pen and Sword

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This volume of original and historic photographs captures the story of the ingenious bridges that carried us from the Victorian era into modern times.

With their moveable platforms designed to traverse busy waterways, Transporter Bridges served a brief but vital need from the late 19th century into the early 20th. Though many were planned, the huge increase in road transport quickly rendered them obsolete. In the end, fewer than thirty were ever completed across the world, with only nine still standing in their original form.

But the transporter bridge appears to be entering a renaissance. In France and Argentina, restoration efforts are bringing life back to some of the original bridges. Meanwhile, proposals exist for three new bridges across France—at Nantes, Marseille and Brest—to replace some of those lost during and after the Second World War.

This illustrated history captures the beauty of transporter bridges through hundreds of color photographs. The author combines his own modern images with many historic photographs and postcards chronicling the construction and operation of these unusual structures.

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John Hannavy is a writer and photographer with a passion for engineering history. His work regularly appears in heritage magazines. A retired academic, he has written extensively on railways and other forms of transport, steam-powered machines, the history of photography, and the industrial development of Victorian and Edwardian Britain. This is his fiftieth book. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and was Centenary President of the British Institute of Professional Photography. The award of a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship in 2002 allowed him to travel the world in the footsteps of pioneer British photographers.