Publication Account

Date 2013

Event ID 979321

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/979321

Road: 1828 suspension bridge by Captain Samuel Brown, his longest span at 432ft. In 1930 Sir E Owen Williams completed a replacement in homage to it: a double cantilever bridge of 216 ft main span constructed in reinforced concrete that echoed the form of the previous suspension bridge. This design led to controversy across the Atlantic: “it is regrettable that a freak structure of inappropriate design should have been allowed to succeed the previous 100-year old suspension bridge” (D B Steinmann). Its successor by Balfour Beatty is again shorter in span than the first bridge (look under the beams for the rounded piers of Brown’s bridge).

Railway: a curving brick arched viaduct crosses the road and Rossie Island leading on to a multispan bowstring girder viaduct on concrete filled piers across the channel. This was built in 1881-3 by Sir Wm Arrol contractors to designs by W R Galbraith

M Watson, 2013