Il ponte sospeso di Yarmouth attraversava il fiume Bure a Great Yarmouth, nel Norfolk, dal 1829 fino al suo crollo nel 1845. Il ponte fu ampliato nel 1832, cosa che non era stata prevista dal progetto originale. Il 2 maggio 1845, il ponte crollò sotto il peso della folla che si era radunata per assistere a un’acrobazia circense sul fiume. Circa 79 persone, soprattutto bambini, persero la vita. Un’indagine individuò dei difetti nella progettazione e nella qualità del ponte. Un monumento commemorativo moderno segna il luogo del disastro.
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The Bridge
In 1827, an Act of Parliament was passed for the construction of a bridge over the River Bure at Great Yarmouth. The bridge was designed to replace the existing ferry service and to provide easier access from the town to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and a bowling green which was owned by the Cory family. The bridge was paid for by the Cory family who then recouped the investment with a toll on the people crossing.
The architect for the bridge was Joseph John Scoles of London who designed a suspension bridge with two towers and a clear span of 19 metres. The span was increased to 26 metres during construction and the suspension chains were increased in length accordingly, but the height of the towers was not increased to match the lengthened chains.
The bridge was opened for public use on 23 April 1829 and in 1832 it was decided to route the road from Yarmouth to Acle over the bridge. This was not part of the original project and in order to provide sufficient width for two carriages to pass each other, the bridge was widened by some 0.61 metres on each side.
The Disaster
In the late spring of 1845, Cooke’s Royal Circus was in Great Yarmouth and, as part of a promotion, it was advertised that a clown named Arthur Nelson would sail up the River Bure in a washtub pulled by four geese on 2nd May. The trick, which was first devised by Dicky Usher in 1809, was achieved by attaching the washtub to a distant rowboat with an underwater line. A large crowd assembled in the vicinity from around 5.00 pm to view the feat which started with the flood tide. Several thousand people watched from the river banks while a crowd of at least 300 gathered on the south-eastern corner of the bridge.
At about 5.40 pm, one of the eyebars in the southern suspension chain failed, and although some members of the crowd witnessed this, no attempt was made to evacuate the bridge. The second eyebar in that portion of the chain resisted for about five minutes before it, too, failed. The south side of the bridge collapsed into the river and most of the onlookers were tipped into the water, which at this point was 2.1 metres deep. Children, who formed much of the front rank of the crowd, were crushed against the railing by those behind them. One child was saved from being swept away by her mother holding onto her clothes with her teeth. A horse and cart was at the point of crossing when the collapse happened and was saved from falling into the river by the horse backing up in fright.
Boats soon arrived on the scene to rescue the victims. The wounded and dead were taken to nearby houses and pubs. The Union House hotel supplied blankets for the wounded, and Lacons Brewery made quantities of hot water available for hot baths to revive the survivors. Some 75 bodies were recovered on the day of the accident, though some remained trapped in the wreckage of the bridge – one man was rescued alive sometime later after being freed with a crowbar. In all, 79 people were killed in the disaster, of whom 59 were children. Most of the dead were under 13 years of age, and the youngest victim was two years old. The news was conveyed by electric telegraph and was known in Norwich within 5 minutes of the accident. Messages were passed by this means to family members of those killed, injured, or missing.
The Investigation
The coroner’s inquest was held the next day in a local church hall. The British government commissioned a report by James Walker, past-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Walker found that although high-quality iron had been used for the eyebars, the product had never been tested and the joints within the eyebars had been imperfectly welded, with the weld covering only one-third of the joint’s surface area. Walker also claimed that if the bridge had not been widened, it would have been able to support the crowd loading. Indeed, much larger crowds had previously been present on the bridge, but the loads had been spread more evenly across the two suspension chains.
According to leading bridge engineer and future president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, James Meadows Rendel, such a slender suspension bridge should not have been constructed in a location susceptible to crowd loading. He was of the opinion that a traditional arch bridge should have been constructed instead.
The Legacy
The disaster is described as the “largest recorded loss of life” in Great Yarmouth. It is commemorated by a blue plaque on the former Swan Inn, some 91 metres north of the site of the bridge. Lanterns were lit at the site in 2013 to mark the 168th anniversary of the disaster. A permanent memorial costing £5,000 was erected near to the site of the bridge on North Quay Road in September 2013. This comprises a 1.4 metre high granite block carved to resemble an open book. One page depicts the disaster, and the other contains a list of the dead.
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