Humber Bridge Humber Bridge The Humber Bridge, near Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, is a single-span suspension bridge, which opened to traffic on 24 June 1981. When it was opened, it was the longest of its type in the world; it was not surpassed until 1998, with the completion of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, and it is now the eighth-longest. It spans the Humber, (the estuary formed by the rivers Trent and Ouse), between Barton-upon-Humber on the south bank and Hessle on the north bank, thereby connecting the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. When it opened in
Suspension bridge tightly bound cloth. The first iron chain suspension bridge in the Western world was the Jacob's Creek Bridge (1801) in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, designed by inventor James Finley. Finley's bridge was the first to incorporate all of the necessary components of a modern suspension bridge, including a suspended deck which hung by trusses. Finley patented his design in 1808, and published it in the Philadelphia journal, The Port Folio, in 1810. Early British chain bridges included the Dryburgh Abbey Bridge (1817) and 137 m Union Bridge (1820), with spans rapidly increasing to 176 m with the Menai Bridge (1826), "the