Avon - Boats
The Port of Bristol grew up on the banks of the Rivers Avon and Frome, at their confluence upstream of the Avon Gorge which connects the city with the Bristol Channel. This part of the port was known as the Bristol City Docks, and is now more usually known as Bristol Harbour. The Avon and Frome are small, shallow rivers incapable in themselves of accommodating ocean-going ships, even those of the age of sail, as can still be seen by inspecting the branch of the Avon known as the New Cut at low tide. In the 1800s the harbour was enclosed by locks, together with a diversion of the River Avon, resulting in its alternative name of the Floating Harbour, taken from the fact that the ships were able to float at all times, rather than resting in the mud at low tide, as had previously been the case.
The navigation of the Avon Gorge always presented a challenge, and became more and more difficult as ships got larger. In 1877, Avonmouth Old Dock, the first of the Avonmouth Docks was opened. In 1908 the Royal Edward Dock was built at Avonmouth to the north of the mouth of the River Avon with direct access to the Severn estuary and Bristol Channel.
In 1972 the large deep water Royal Portbury Dock, across the river mouth from the Royal Edward Dock was constructed, again with direct access to the Bristol Channel.
These developments rendered the old Bristol City Docks in the Floating Harbour redundant as a commercial dock, and they have since been redeveloped as the centrepiece of many leisure, residential and retail developments in and around Bristol city centre. A sand company was the last to use the docks commercially in 1991.
Now you can still see private ships sail in and out of the docks through the lock gates in and out of the floating harbour at high tide.
You can read more on the Wiki
The Geocache
Please note this is not on the Suspension Bridge, is at the level of the River
Take a nice walk or cycle along the tow path to this one. If you go at high tide there are several spots where you can see boats heading into the floating harbour.
Please note there is poor GPS reception at GZ due to the overhead bridge and tree cover. The coords have been averaged over several visits. Please use the hint if you struggle!
Be sure to grab the bonus info!
Enjoy!