History
The island was originally called Bearn Back, derived from the Old English words burn and bæc which mean The spring brook island. It was pronounced by locals as Be-arn Back which has since become corrupted into the current name Birnbeck. The rock is limestone, giving rise to the geological term "Birnbeck Limestone Formation".
Prior to the construction of the pier, Birnbeck Island could be accessed by a causeway at low tide. The two eldest sons of local noble Sir Charles Abraham Elton were drowned in 1819 after being caught out by the tide on the causeway.
A proposal was made in 1845 to connect Birnbeck Island to the mainland at the western end of Worlebury Hill. Work commenced on a suspension bridge two years later under a design by James Dredge, architect of the Victoria Bridge in Bath. He patented the 'Taper principle' based on using chains rather than cables, as is more common in suspension bridges. Dredge's bridge design was considered "a very significant yet relatively short-lived phase in suspension bridge development". During a strike by stonemasons, what little had been built was damaged during storm, bringing about the end to the suspension bridge scheme.
Read more about this topic: Birnbeck Pier
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)