Like their counterparts in San Francisco’s bay area, residents of Kingston upon Hull (more usually just called Hull) were a people divided on two banks of a waterway. The River Hull flows into the Humber estuary in Hull, and for a century businesses and residents alike wanted to replace the complex and undependable system of ferries with a proper crossing. At first an underground tunnel was proposed, but went nowhere. The city government drew up plans for a bridge, but the Great Depression scuttled that idea. Still, the city never gave up on their dream, and by the middle of the 20th century work began to construct it.

On this day, June 24, in 1981, the Humber Bridge, spanning 4,600 feet — about 300 more than the Golden Gate Bridge — opened to traffic. The Queen herself was on hand for the inauguration ceremonies.

The Humber bridge currently stands as the fifth-largest suspension bridge in the world. The suspension bridge design was chosen as the most optimal, even if technically difficult, because the geology of the area made an underground tunnel under the river even more expensive, and the city did not want any pylons obstructing the water flow in the estuary. Construction took eight years, and upwards of one thousand workers and staff were employed at times of peak activity.