River Avon, Bristol

The Avon at Pulteney Bridge in Bath

The Floating Harbour Bristol with Bristol Bridge

The Avon [ eɪvən ] is a 121 km long river in south-west England. The lower section of the river is navigable and therefore is called Avon Navigation. Because there are several rivers named Avon in England, the river is often referred to as the Lower Avon or Bristol Avon.

The Avon rises near Chipping Sodbury in the County of Gloucestershire. He then runs first eastward, and later to the south by the county of Wiltshire. Then the river turns to the northwest and flows through Bradford-on -Avon, Bath and Bristol and opens into the estuary of the Severn at Avonmouth, near Bristol. Throughout much of the Avon forms the border between the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire.

In the center of the Bristol Avon is subject to the tides and is diverted from its original river bed in a channel called New Cut, which was built 1804-1809. In the original bed of the river water level is by lock gates (built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel ) maintained at a constant level. This area forms the port of Bristol and the Floating Harbour is called. The constant water level will prevent the ships in the harbor must fall dry at low tide. Downstream cuts through the Avon to Bristol the Avon Gorge, which is spanned by the built by Brunel Clifton Suspension Bridge.

The Avon is continuously navigable from its mouth at Avonmouth to the Pulteney Bridge in Bath city center. Shortly before the weir at the bridge branches of the Kennet and Avon Canal from the river. Consists Together with channel Kennet Navigation and the Thames as a continuous route for canal boats, the so-called narrowboats, from Bristol to London.

From Avonmouth to Bristol through the Avon Gorge, the river is subject to the tides and is for seagoing ships only passable at high tide. This led ultimately to the fact that the docks of Bristol are no longer used today; new ones were built in Avonmouth.

Name

Avon is a word from the Welsh language and means " river ". Therefore, there is still more rivers, which bear the name Avon, see Avon.

View of the Suspension Bridge