PEDESTRIANS still outnumber motorists in this view of Stockbridge in 1930.

During construction of the present bridge, the traffic had to use a temporary wooden bridge, seen here in the foreground. Beyond, the new ferro-concrete bridge is nearing completion.

This was opened to vehicles at 8.30 on the morning of September 4, 1930, when an extremely informal ceremony took place.

A tape was held across the roadway by a workman at one end and Mr Deakin, landlord of the Bridge Inn, at the other.

As the first car approached, Mr Deakin cut the tape as “a long string of other vehicles followed”, including the Riddlesden bus, operated by the West Yorkshire Road Car Company, which had been first to cross the temporary bridge in 1928.

That first day a motorcyclist, not realising the new bridge had opened, ran into a barrier placed across the temporary bridge on the Bingley side, but was not injured.

The Keighley News was soon describing “hordes of vehicles” crossing the new bridge, although its approaches took another several months to complete. The Bridge Inn appears in the background beside some luxuriant trees.