Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #newporttransporterbridge
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My mum's grandfather Ernest Waggett moved to Newport from Somerset to help build the transporter bridge, the largest of the remaining transporter bridges in the world. Ernest stayed on after it opened in 1906, as one of the maintenance men. 15yrs later he fell ill on the... 1/5 
... girder at the top, & dragged himself down the 277 steps, but was pronounced dead at the Royal Gwent Hospital that day - dying of appendicitis aged 46. Workers at the Corporation (Newport Council today) held a collection for his widow Ellen & her 10 kids...2/5
Ellen used the money to buy a house for her & the kids, the youngest was my Bampi Albert; the collection saved them from the poorhouse. 3 weeks ago @NewportCouncil arranged for my nephew's, visiting from Dublin, to go up the Bridge, just a few days before its handover to... 3/5
