A Leeds city centre footbridge spanning the River Aire has been restored to mark 400 years of the city.
Centenary Bridge, crossing the river between The Calls and Brewery Wharf, has been repainted and upgraded by the city council as part of celebrations marking four centuries since Leeds was awarded its first royal charter by King Charles I.
Completed in 1993, the cable-stayed bridge was the first river crossing built in the city for more than a century.
The work has revived memories for the bridge’s designer, Colin Harris, who worked on sketches at his dining room table using a drawing pin and a piece of string.
The former University of Leeds civil engineering graduate said it was “wonderful” he had been given the chance to design something that had transformed part of the city.
After returning to Leeds in 1989 following work on projects around the world, one of Harris’ first commissions was designing the crossing.
“We were in offices right next to the bridge site, and I was having a coffee with the landlord one day,” Harris recalled.
“He said, ‘what would it take to put a bridge across from here to over there?’
“I said I would do some sketches, and that’s how it all began.”
The first designs of the bridge, with its distinctive curved shape, were sketched out at his dining room table, he said.
“The initial ideas you think with a pencil, and then you start to put some engineering detail into it.”
