page_title: Blackwood, Caerphilly
section_title: The Chartist Bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Blackwood, Caerphilly / Landmarks / The Chartist Bridge
caption_attribution_description: English: The Chartist Statue on the A4048 at Blackwood
context_page_description: Blackwood is a town, community and an electoral ward on the Sirhowy River in the South Wales Valleys administered as part of Caerphilly County Borough. It is located within the historic county of Monmouthshire.
  The town houses a growing number of light industrial and high-tech firms. It is the home town of influential rock band Manic Street Preachers.
context_section_description: The Arup designed Chartist Bridge linking the East and West sides of the Sirhowy Valley.  Previously the journey was made by de-tour or over a 1 in 4 road through the bottom of the valley known locally as the Rhiw.
  The bridge is a part of the Sirhowy Enterprise Way, regeneration project and opened four months ahead of schedule on 3 December 2005.
  The bridge is a cable-stayed bridge 230m long supported 30m above the valley floor by a 90m A frame pylon. Difficulties with mining-related subsidence during construction and in the foreseeable future led the design team to allow the bridge to breathe if settlement does occur.  The bridge and the Sirhowy Enterprise Way are operated and maintained by the DBFO Company (Design, Build, Finance and Operate) in accordance with the DBFO contract for a period of thirty years.
  A statue to honour the Chartist struggle and their march to Newport has been erected on the East side of the bridge while a name plate is situated on the West. The statue itself is an impressive and imposing figure of a chartist striding forward, pike in hand. It is made up of thousands of brass rings and represents strength in unity.
caption: Chartist Statue in Blackwood
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "Windows Photo Editor 6.3.9600.17031", "Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "NEX-5R", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Windows Photo Editor 6.3.9600.17031", "Image DateTime": "2014:06:12 06:52:45", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2416", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 3, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "125", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "125", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:05:24 16:34:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:05:24 16:34:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "3891/640", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "21", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1020", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1600", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4912", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3264", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "21974", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "31", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "d54d21a8d86e0c2175a077e076e7366a", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 55, 7/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "3976"}