Last Updated : 2 Aug 2009

Birkenhead is directly opposite Liverpool City Centre on the other side of the River Mersey and is now part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Liverpool has been connected to Birkenhead by ferry boat at least as far back as the 13th century. The Mersey Ferry became world famous and is captured in Gerry Marsden's song "Ferry Cross The Mersey". In 1886 it also became connected by tunnel, when the Mersey Railway started operating under the river. In 1934, the first Mersey road tunnel, the Queensway Tunnel was opened connecting Liverpool and Birkenhead by an under river road as "the longest underwater highway in the world".