Portsmouth-Gosport Floating Bridge

The floating bridge (or chain ferry) was a feature of Portsmouth Harbour for over 150years. The engineer who invented the concept first made one that crossed the River Dart at Dartmouth in 1831. Portsmouth was the fifth one he constructed, and it was opened, after an Act of Parliament had been obtained despite opposition from both the Admiralty and local wherrymen, in May 1840. It cost one penny for a passenger to travel across and between a penny and a shilling for all other traffic. The company flourished until the world wars during which their launches were requisitioned. Afterwards, aging machinery, rising fuel costs, the lack of radar meaning it could not operate in fog when more modern vessels could, and an appearance of a sandbank near the Gosport shore which lead to grounding at low tide, all meant this the company could not continue. The service was finally suspended in December 1961.