Oblique aerial view centred on the Falkirk Wheel with the aqueduct adjacent, taken from the SW.

Description Oblique aerial view centred on the Falkirk Wheel with the aqueduct adjacent, taken from the SW.

Date 5/2/2002

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number E 11464 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 695564, SC 1669518

Scope and Content Aerial view, The Falkirk Wheel, Falkirk, from south-west This aerial view from the south-west shows the Falkirk Wheel (centre) being built. It is almost complete but the lock and rectangular jetty are not finished. Once completed, boats travelling from the Union Canal would move along the channel (bottom right), across the aqueduct and onto one of the caissons. The wheel would then rotate moving the caisson from the upper level down to the basin. The boat could then move off the caisson and gain access to the Forth & Clyde Canal via the lock at the other end of the basin. This process would be repeated in the opposite direction for boats travelling from the Forth & Clyde Canal. The Falkirk Wheel is a unique boat-lift which has become a major tourist attraction. The 35m-high structure has two caissons each of which can carry a maximum of four boats. The 15 minutes lifting or lowering operation is very energy efficient and each turn of the wheel uses the same amount of energy which is needed to boil two kettles. The adjoining 100m-long aqueduct has five piers which stand 20m apart. The Forth & Clyde Canal, built between 1768 and 1790, ran from the River Carron, near Falkirk, in the east, to Bowling in the west of Scotland. The Union Canal, built between 1817 and 1822, ran from Port Downie, Falkirk, to Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. Eleven locks which rose 33.5m in a distance of 0.8km connected the two canals. The Union Canal was closed in 1965, two years after the Forth & Clyde Canal, and the locks were largely buried and landscaped in the 20th century. 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. The Falkirk Wheel, opened by Her Majesty The Queen in 2002, was part of this project and re-established the link between the two canals. It was designed and built by a team which included the combined building contractors of Morrison-Bachy-Soletanche with specialist advice from Ove Arup Consultants, Butterley Engineering and R M J M Architects. Constructed on the site of an abandoned opencast mine at a cost £17m, the rotating boat-lift can move boats from one canal to another. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/695563