The Transporter Bridge. The Runcorn & Widnes Transporter Bridge was opened on 29th May 1905 by Sir John Brunner. Prior to this, the only means of crossing the River Mersey at Runcorn Gap had been by rail on Runcorn Railway Bridge (which also had a footpath) and by the ancient ferry service. It was Britain's first transporter bridge and the longest of its type in the world. Designed by John J. Webster and John T. Wood, it was built by the Arrol Bridge & Roof Co., who were based in Glasgow. The steel supporting towers were 180 feet high (55 m), and the span of the bridge was 1,000 feet (305 m). The 'car' was designed to carry four two-horse farm wagons as well as about three hundred passengers, and it took roughly three minutes to cross the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey. By the 1950s the bridge had become totally inadequate to deal with the huge increase in road traffic since its construction. The opening of Runcorn Bridge in 1961 (renamed the Silver Jubilee Bridge in 1977) rendered the Transporter Bridge redundant, and the final crossing was made on 22nd July 1961. One gained access to the Transporter Bridge at the bottom of Waterloo Road to your right.