View from WSW

Description View from WSW

Date 18/9/2001

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number E 15019 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 790894, SC 1935641

Scope and Content Railway Swing Bridge and Approach Viaducts, Bowling Harbour, Forth & Clyde Canal, West Dunbartonshire, from west-south-west This shows the 1896 railway swing bridge which was engineered by Crouch & Hogg and built by Robert McAlpine & Sons for the Lanarkshire & Dunbartonshire Railway. The iron frame of the bridge has been riveted and spans part of the canal which was originally a lock. The capped pylon (right) and the abutment (left) are constructed of pink concrete which has been grooved to resemble stonework. There is a winch (right), a white-painted mooring ring (foreground) and a bascule bridge (drawbridge) in the background. This railway was vital to the canal as it brought coal to the coastal cargo vessels and the puffers which were used to transport goods along the canal. The railway could also be used to transport timber brought by the cargo ships. The bridge would open to allow puffers and larger ships into or out of the canal. The Forth & Clyde Canal was built between 1768 and 1790. It could have been completed sooner but funds ran out in 1777 and more money was not found by the government until 1784. John Smeaton (1724-92) was the designer and first chief engineer for the project. He was replaced in 1777 by Robert Mackell (d.1779), and in 1785 Robert Whitworth (1734-99) took over the building of the final section of the canal from Glasgow. When the canal was completed in 1790 it ran from the River Forth at Grangemouth, in the east, to Bowling on the River Clyde in the west of Scotland. The canal was linked to Edinburgh when the Union Canal was opened in 1822. The Forth & Clyde Canal was closed in 1963 and the Union Canal in 1965 and the construction of new roads meant that it was impossible for boats to travel along the full length of these watercourses. However, the £84.5m Millennium Link project enabled the canals to reopen in 2002. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/681673