Cultural Impact
The construction of such a large and distinctive bridge soon caught the attention of the general public. The launching of the Cornish span in 1857 attracted a crowd of around 20,000, and many people also came to witness the launch of the Devon span and the opening day. During its construction it was photographed many times and after its opening it was the subject for many paintings, including those by local artist Alfred Wallis. It has also been the subject of many photographs and postcards.
It was already a feature in guidebooks in the year of its opening: It is a labour of Hercules, but Mr Brunel has accomplished the feat proclaimed one, and went on to report in detail the design and construction of the bridge that for novelty and ingenuity of construction stands unrivalled in the world. More than 100 years later it continues to appear in many travel guides and features. John Betjeman summed up its impact on the traveller:
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- The general grey slate and back gardens of Plymouth, as seen from the Great Western made the surprise of Saltash Bridge all the more exciting. Up and down stream, grey battleships were moored in the Tamar and its reaches. Hundreds of feet below, the pathetic steam ferry to Saltash from the Devon bank tried to compete with Brunel's mighty bridge.
The bridge has become a symbol of the transition from Devon to Cornwall. In the Great Western Railway's The Cornish Riviera travel guide, SPB Mais regarded it as an almost magic means of transporting travellers from a county, which, if richer than others, is yet unmistakingly an English county, to a Duchy which is in every respect un-English. You shut your eyes going over the Saltash Bridge only to open them again on a foreign scene. However, Cornish people look at it in the other way; in the song "Cousin Jack", English folk duo Show of Hands sing I dream of a bridge on the Tamar, It opens us up to the East.
The bridge is also the backdrop of ITV1's The West Country Tonight during the old westcountry region.
Read more about this topic: Royal Albert Bridge
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