The Shropshire Star features team spent a day in the bridge’s company earlier this week, from sunrise to sunset, to find out what a typical day holds.

Here’s their view of what the bridge saw . . . in its own words:

7am: It’s a sunny start to the day and, like clockwork, Chris Perry walks across to open Chrisalis Newsagents, the first shop in the neighbourhood to begin trading.

7.10am: I am kept very well groomed, with not a single cigarette end littering me, but am relieved when someone clears a pile of horse mess which was inconsiderately deposited yesterday!

7.20am: My first dogwalker of the day pays a visit and this morning it’s Gwynny Tuite with her spaniel Misty.

7.50am: Smack on time, Darren Good from Ladywood crosses me to catch the 96 bus to Shrewsbury.

8.10am: I like Chris Raper, from Brookside. He goes cycling every morning for exercise, but prefers to push his bike “out of reverence” when he crosses me!

8.15am: Here comes Kath Hardman to prepare the Tourist Information office for opening at 9am – just as she has been for more than 20 years.

9am: It’s nice to see David and Patsy Betts again. Even though they’re from Essex they visit friends in Ironbridge on an annual basis.

9.50am: It’s beginning to get busier now, and here’s Geoffrey Holloway on his motorised scooter who enjoys smoking a roll-up and taking in the view from time to time.

10am: Neighbour David Crooke-Williams catches up on his reading yards from home on the bench outside the Tontine.

10.15am: About time – the first coach party and today it’s Walsall Probus Club who are visiting before heading to Bridgnorth for lunch and Much Wenlock for afternoon tea.

10.45am: Quiet now at Eley’s famous pork pie shop, but I can spot the staff preparing for the hectic lunchtime trade. After 40 years in Ironbridge the Eley family are old friends.

11am: The Square is starting to get busy and the buses are now flowing thick and fast with people heading to Wellington, Coalport and Telford Town Centre.

11.15am: I love to welcome families and many travel a long way to see me, like Stella and John Swindells and their children Jonathan, 13, and Rosanna, nine, from Dorset.

11.30am: There goes Robert Edwards on his second visit to the public toilets in the Square to ensure they are clean for visitors. He’s covering for someone on holiday and pops by four times a day for the regular spruce up.

11.45am: Those Eley Pork Pies must be good – so many of my visitors can’t wait to tuck in while they take in the view. The Rayfield family – Ray, Pam, Chloe, nine, and twins Emmie and Kizzie, 2 – come back time and time again to enjoy the treat.

12noon: I’m not just for tourists; students Vicki Sarling and Lucy Edwards, both 15 and from Newport, have travelled here by bus to complete their geography GCSE coursework – and during their holidays too.

12.12pm: Oh no! The day may have started really well but here is the first downpour. Luckily Steven and Rachel Williams and their children Daniel, 15, Jordan, 13, and Rebecca, nine, from Lytham St Annes, have brought their brollies.

12.45pm: The torrential rain took a brief break but its started again and this time no one is braving the rain. It’s odd to be completely empty at peak time in the holidays.

1.25pm: Lunch goes on in the pubs, but braving the showers are Lynn and Tony Clay – they have come all the way from Halifax in their caravan. They love the view over the river and have been to see me many times over the years since their first visit in the 1980s.

1.40pm: Rain doesn’t stop the Jackson family, from County Durham, from eating their snacks on my steps. The older members of the family, Eleanor and Peter, visited me in the 1960s when I didn’t look my best, but are impressed with how I have been cleaned up since.

2.05pm: Visitors come to see me from across the world and many travel from the United States. Hairdresser Matthew Preece, from Los Angeles, is taking photos with his friend Peter Brookes and says his local historical society is very interested in his visit.

2.20pm: Who should drop by, but my new boss! Steve Miller is taking over from Glen Lawes as chief executive of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust. He is just moving in across the road and says he rates me as one of the most beautiful sights in Britain.

2.50pm: The work goes on in town as Pete Wood, from Telford Laundry, completes his round. He collects and delivers laundry along the Wharfage three times a week and is a regular at local pubs.

3.15pm: My reputation as a magnet for lovers is clear as Laura Rowley and Mark Parson walk past, arm-in-arm. Mark lives in Southampton, but makes fortnightly trips to visit his girlfriend.

3.35pm: Michael and Janet Hunter are busy working at the Post Office just across the road. Today they have been inundated with customers, many of them wanting new tax discs.

4.05pm: Another day of organised trips comes to an end as the final Shearings coach pulls out of the car park opposite the Station Hotel.

4.15pm: Now here’s a face I haven’t seen for some years – Professor John Schechtman used to bring American students every year from Syracuse University in New York. Today he’s brought his wife and daughter for the first time. They’re suitably impressed.

4.25pm: I become a bridge over troubled waters, as the Branning family from Walsall choose to have a domestic. Two boys start an ice-cream fight, and one loses a choc-ice into the river Severn. Mum and dad slope off shame-faced.

4.45pm: Construction duo Tony Watkins and John Raybould have been lugging their building materials across for the past month now, while renovating the old coracle maker’s house. They’ll be around for another three months yet, they say.

5.05pm: Kath Hardman calls it a day at the tourist information centre in the toll house. She says it’s been a pretty quiet one.

5.25pm: The number 96 bus rolls in, bringing Jim Coppin from Broseley Wood home. He crosses twice a day when he’s at college. Today he’s been shopping in the town centre since 10am.

5.50pm: Time to tidy up. Eileen Soame sweeps up another day’s leftovers outside Eley’s. She’s the last shop to close at 6pm.

6.15pm: Here come the dog walkers again. It’s peak time for locals and their mutts. In the past 10 minutes we’ve had four labradors, three spaniels, two collies and five “others” – one of which dediced to take a rather irreverent pee up the railings!

6.35pm: Now it’s the fitness freaks. Four or five local joggers use me for exercise most days, including Ken from Coalbrookdale who has a regular route which will take him up towards Bedlam Furnaces.

6.50pm: Total silence. No tourists tramping across me, and no cars whizzing by. For a rare moment, all I can actually hear is the river below.

7pm: I’ve just said goodbye to a few tourist stragglers. Russian student Izabella seemed more delighted that she could get a mobile phone signal when she stood at the centre. Just goes to show that, even 228 years ago, my designers thought of everything!

. . . after darkAs the sun goes down, the revellers come out . . . a different kind of visitor pays a trip to the bridge during late night hours, particularly during the summer.

And unlike the daytime tourist traffic, these people are not here to admire an amazing feat of engineering – they’re just locals enjoying the social side of life.

Last night was typical of the holiday season’s comings and goings, as a handful of drinkers spilled out of pubs such as the Tontine Hotel between 10pm and 11pm to end the evening with a tipple in the outside air.

As the midnight hour approached, the bridge also became a commuter route for revellers who had been flitting between pubs and restaurants in the heart of Ironbridge, and were heading back to the Broseley side of the river.

The bridge is no stranger to a spot of romance at this time of night, either, with couples often choosing the historic spot for a quick canoodle – sometimes even a marriage proposal.

There were no wedding bells ringing last night, however, although at least half a dozen couples took a late night stroll across the historic structure after 10pm, arm-in-arm.