The central span of Pero’s Bridge that failed in August finally collapsed into Bristol’s harbour at the weekend.
Named after Pero Jones, who arrived from the Caribbean in 1783 as a slave to a Great George Street merchant, the 27-year-old bridge, pictured, had developed structural issues that emerged two years ago.
In August this year the central span tumbled out of line during a test of the opening mechanism, preventing its use.
This weekend’s collapse may derail the intended restoration of the bridge by next spring.
Coincidentally, this weekend, the council was criticised by its own lead disclosures officer following an internal review of a Freedom of Information request seeking recent engineering reports for the bridge.
The council had claimed that providing information would breach personal data protection law by revealing staff names.
Clifton Suspension Bridge, which was opened in 1864 and is not overseen by the council, remains in working order.
