Welcome to the blog

This blog exists for people to post memories, stories and pictures of Newport Transporter Bridge. Many people have an emotional attachment this iconic bridge. For some it is part of their childhood and some grew up with the structure towering above them.  

A few years ago I met John Davies the historian and we started discussing why Cardiff had overtaken Newport commercially. We got onto the Transporter Bridge and he stated that he often visited it and brought his grandchildren who loved to ride on it. 

Of course we all remember the scene in Tiger Bay where Hayley Mills got on the bridge in Newport and got off in the docks in Cardiff  and this is just one of the famous stories about the bridge. But you might have your own memories and have pictures and if so we would love to blog them.

 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Friends help construct the Transporter Bridge Garden

Image
The Friends help construct the Transporter Bridge Garden Gavin has been an inspiration when it comes to publicising the Newport Transporter  Bridge during its period of closure. It closed because of the construction of the new Visitor's Centre. Researching the past Gavin discovered that a group of Transporter Bridge Crew had  their own allotment on the East Side of the Anchorage.  So in June he asked the Friends if they would help him construct a garden.  Chippings were put down as a base and raised beds were created and many of which the Friends' Committee helped construct them. They also assembled a green house. Members if the committee at the start of the project. Left to right, Martyn Newman, Jeff Grosvenor, Terry Mercy, Gavin Jones, Grenville Pow and Peter Thomas- Keefe Jeff Grosvenor and one other Peter Thomas Keefe Gavin was an ideal co-ordinator as he had previously worked for the Living Levels Project as Community Engagement Officer and had also worked for other organi
Read more

Cutting the sod for the contruction of the new visitor's centre

Image
  Cutting the Sod for the constriction of the new visitor's centre  on a rainy day.   Tuesday. 2nd August   The Newport Transporter Bridge is a transporter bridge crosses the River Usk in Newport, South East Wales. The bridge is the lowest crossing on the River Usk. It is a Grade I listed structure. It is one of fewer than 10 transporter bridges that remain in use worldwide and only a few dozen were ever built. Construction started :  1902 Clearance below :  54 m Opened :  12 September 1906 Architect :  Ferdinand Arnodin Height :  74 m  Pictures of our amazing Transporter Bridge taken by Drone photographer Sam Wise 1.  Assembling outside the existing visitor's centre in the rain On Tuesday  2nd August people met to celebrate the cutting of the sod for the erection of the new visitor's centre. The much anticipated building of a new visitor centre and repair work at Newport Transporter Bridge made progress on Tuesday. T he existing visitor centre is to be replaced with a mode
Read more

Newport Transporter Bridge in Film by Richard Frame

Image
Newport Transporter Bridge in film 1906 The Earliest Film The earliest film of the Transporter Bridge relates to its opening in 1906 but the film was not discovered until 1987. The newly formed Newport Maritime Trust had been in touch with film historian John Huntley regarding a chance discovery of some film featuring the Transporter Bridge. Huntley had spent many years working for the British Film Institute but in 1974 retired and set up Huntley Film Archives. A favourite pastime of Huntley’s was rummaging through the bric a brac barrows of the east end of London. He had amassed a collection of old film this way, but one film he bought for five shillings had him stumped. It wasn’t until he took a train journey to Cardiff and was crossing the River Usk at Newport that he spied the unmistakable shape of the Transporter Bridge. As part of a fundraising project for Newport Maritime Trust, Huntley brought the film together with a selection of railway films to the Newport Centre on Marc
Read more