Humber Bridge

Before the bridge, commuters crossed the Humber on the Humber Ferry from Corporation Pier at Hull and New Holland Pier at New Holland, Lincolnshire, or by road via the M62 (from 1976), M18 (from 1979) and M180 motorways, crossing, by way of the Ouse Bridge, the River Ouse near Goole (connected to the Humber). Until the mid-1970s the route south was via the single-carriageway A63 and the A614 (via grid-locked Thorne) where it met the busy A18 and crossed the Stainforth and Keadby Canal at Keadby Bridge, a swing bridge, which formed a bottleneck on the route, and on through Finningley and Bawtry, meeting the east–west A631. The journey was along straight single-carriageway roads across foggy…

The consulting engineers for the project were Freeman Fox & Partners (now Arcadis NV). Sir Ralph Freeman had produced the first ideas in 1927 and in the early 1930s the cost of the project was estimated at £1.725 million and that the bridge would be unlikely to recoup the construction or maintenance costs. In 1935 he had an idea for a 4500 ft suspension bridge for the Humber Tunnel Executive Committee. Sir Gilbert Roberts produced more ideas in 1955 for a bridge with a 4500 ft central span, costing £15 million, to be paid for by East Riding County Council and Lindsey County Council. The 1955 design looked much like the Forth Road Bridge, which would cost £15 million, and have a 4,500 ft…

The bridge opened to traffic on Wednesday 24 June 1981 at a final cost of £91 million (). By 7.30 am, 25 vehicles were queuing up. 32-year-old Mrs Jennifer Hall had driven the first car across, with 33-year old Mrs Christine Goodrum, of Willerby. They had queued overnight from 4.30pm on Tuesday, in their S-plate Vauxhall Viva. 800 vehicles an hour crossed on the first day, taking £1,000 per hour. Over 15,000 vehicles crossed in the first 12 hours.