Work on the Clifton Suspension Bridge started in 1831 then halted in 1843 due to lack of money. The bridge finally opened in 1861. This is well known, but what I've learnt today is that during the hiatus, funds were raised by transporting people across the Gorge in baskets suspended from a rope. A honeymooning couple were supposedly stranded midway for over an hour.
Sadly, the bridge soon became the scene of suicides. The other thing I've learnt is that in 1885 a barmaid, 23 year old Sarah Ann Henley, threw herself off it after having been abandoned by her boyfriend. But her fashionably huge petticoats acted as a parachute, slowing her fall enough for her to survive and go on to live to the age of 85.
