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If you're in a few parts of the world, this
video will be old news to you. But everyone

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else: welcome to Wales, and what may be the
strangest bridge you've ever seen.

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This is the Newport Transporter Bridge, one
of only a handful of transporter bridges still

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working anywhere in the world. And you'll
notice something odd, if you're down at ground

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level: there isn't actually much of a bridge
here. Up top, there is, for maintenance and

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for scared tourists to climb over, but there's
no continuous roadway. Instead, it's like

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an aerial ferry: there is one bit of bridge
that gets hauled across, back and forth, on

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huge cables suspended here at the top.

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Which raises the question: why not just use
a ferry? Well, the river Usk, here, is part

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of the Severn Estuary, which has one of the
largest tidal ranges in the world. So at low

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tide, this is mostly mud flats: a regular
ferry won't reach anywhere close to the shore.

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But a bridge here has some very difficult
design requirements.

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Firstly, the ships that came through 100 years
ago, when this was built, were huge, so the

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bridge has to be at least this tall. But the
river banks are low, so in order to get enough

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height with a traditional bridge, you'd have
to build it miles long. Which is much more

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expensive, particularly a century ago, and
also you'd have to end up destroying a good

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part of Newport.

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You could use a swing bridge or a lifting
bridge - but that would need supports in the

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middle of the deep, wide river. Expensive.
Plus, the fast, dangerous currents here mean

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that ships are going to have trouble not crashing
into them.

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So you can't have a traditional bridge, you
can't have a ferry: but you can have this.

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It's a weird hybrid, 100 years old -- and
that 100 years is the clue as to why they're

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not built any more. Because in that 100 years,
technology has moved on in a lot of ways.

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First, we can now build long, deep tunnels,
go under the river instead of over it, and

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not have to worry about demolishing anything
on the way, and second: we've got cars and

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buses now, not horses and carts. The five-mile
diversion that this bridge stopped isn't nearly

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as much a problem any more: you just drive
round it. But despite that: this bridge is

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an icon of Newport, and of Wales. It's a tourist
attraction, for very, very confident tourists.

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And the toll's only a pound. So it will be
here for perhaps another century or two to come.