The Avon Gorge is a 2.5km long gorge on the River Avon in Bristol, South West England. The gorge runs south to north through a limestone ridge 2km west of Bristol city centre and about 5km from the mouth of the river at Avonmouth. The gorge forms the boundary between the unitary authorities of North Somerset and Bristol. In the past, when Bristol was an important port, the gorge formed a spectacular defensive gateway to the city. On the east of the gorge is the town of Clifton, part of Bristol city, and The Downs, a large public park. To the west of the gorge is Leigh Woods the name of the village and the National Trust forest it is situated in. There is an Iron Age hill fort on the side of the gorge in Leigh Woods.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, spans the gorge and is perhaps the best known landmark in Bristol. The A4 road runs through the gorge, linking Bristol city centre to the M5 motorway, which bypasses the city near Avonmouth. Two railways run through the gorge, on the west the Avonmouth railway runs through part of the gorge, and through a tunnel under the downs, while on the east is the Portishead railway, which was closed by the Beeching Axe in the 1960s, but has now been reopened as far as Portbury dock, 4km downstream.

At various times the sides of the gorge have been quarried, leaving steep gorge walls, now popular with climbers and a habitat for Peregrines.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it is a distinctive landmark that is often used as a symbol of Bristol. It is a grade I listed building. The idea of building a bridge across the Avon Gorge originated in 1754, with a bequest in the will of Bristolian merchant William Vick, who left £1,000 invested with instructions that when the interest had accumulated to £10,000 it should be used for the purpose of building a stone bridge between Clifton Down and Leigh Woods, both of which were barely populated at the time.

By the 1820s Vick's bequest was nearing £8,000, but it was estimated that a stone bridge would cost over ten times that amount. An Act of Parliament was passed to allow a wrought-iron suspension bridge to be built instead, and tolls levied to recoup the cost. In 1829 a competition was held to find a design for the bridge. The judge, Thomas Telford, rejected all designs and tried to insist on a hugely expensive design of his own. A second competition held with new judges was won by Brunel's design for a suspension bridge with fashionably Egyptian-influenced towers.

An attempt to build Brunel's design in 1831 was stopped by the Bristol Riots, which severely dented commercial confidence in Bristol. Work was not started again until 1836, and thereafter the capital from Vick's bequest and subsequent investment proved woefully inadequate. By 1843 the towers had been built in unfinished stone, but funds were exhausted. In 1851 the ironwork was sold and used to build the Brunel-designed Royal Albert Bridge on the railway between Plymouth and Saltash.

Brunel died in 1859, without seeing the completion of the bridge. Brunel's colleagues in the Institution of Civil Engineers felt that completion of the Bridge would be a fitting memorial, and started to raise new funds. In 1860 Brunel's Hungerford suspension bridge over the Thames in London was demolished to make way for the new Hungerford railway bridge to Charing Cross railway station and its chains were purchased for use at Clifton. A slightly revised design was made by William Henry Barlow and Sir John Hawkshaw; it has a wider, higher and sturdier deck than Brunel intended, triple chains instead of double, and the towers were left as rough stone rather than being finished in Egyptian style. Work on the bridge was restarted in 1862, and was complete by 1864. The bridge has been open continuously since then.