A bridge in the right place can solve a host of problems and bring untold benefits to the regions it serves. But each one has formidable challenges in its way, from cost, to natural and man-made obstructions and hostile weather conditions. Bridge building has kept engineers on their toes for centuries.

As its name suggests, Ironbridge in Shropshire hailed new thinking in the materials used to build bridges in the late 18th century; a feat matched a century later with steel in the Forth Railway Bridge.

In the early 18th century the world’s largest suspension bridge was being put together in Anglesey to counter the dangerous problem of crossing the Menai Straits.

By the end of the 19th century, the unmistakable shape of Tower Bridge had risen from London’s landscape to counter a riverside congestion problem that would rival what we see today, while still allowing tall ships to pass through.

Discover how the curvature of the earth affects the Humber Bridge and some of the pioneering solutions British designers have come up with to meet the toughest challenges in bridge building.