3-003-848 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Monster swing-bridge at Brest, [northern France], 1861. Brest, '...at the end of a great promontory stretching out into the Atlantic between the Channel and the Bay of Biscay is...advantageously placed for a naval arsenal...Its roadstead...is formed by a natural inclosure of hills...forming a shelter for the navies of France. Its narrow opening is protected...with forts and batteries...threatening all intruders like the open jaws of a shark. A winding creek, the Penfeld...contains the dockyard and town of Brest. Along its shores lie the great workshops, dock basins, seamen's barracks, furnaces, smithies, &c... hitherto, the town of Brest on the left bank was accessible from the suburb La Recouvrance on the right only by ferry-boats. To remedy this inconvenience, and not to interrupt the passage of great-masted ships of war up and down the creek, the great iron swing-bridge...was constructed...The width between the buttresses is no less than 347ft., and its height above the walls is 65ft. It opens in the centre to allow ships to pass, each valve turning on a colossal pier of granite, moved by ingenious machinery, held in place by a counterpoise of ironwork, on the land side of the pier. The engineer is M. Oudry, of the "Ponts et Chaussées".' From "Illustrated London News", 1861.