Hungryside Bridge, Forth and Clyde Canal, Lifting Bridge View from North East

Description Hungryside Bridge, Forth and Clyde Canal, Lifting Bridge View from North East

Date 29/9/1999

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

Catalogue Number D 58838 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 792997, SC 2623265

Scope and Content Lifting Bridge, Forth & Clyde Canal, Hungryside Bridge, East Dunbartonshire, from north-north-east This shows the lifting bridge which was built in the mid-1930s by Sir William Arrol & Company. Four ashlar piers originally supported this steel bridge, but in the late 20th century one of the piers (left) was replaced in brick. Brackets strengthen the pedestrian walkway which has a white-painted parapet. The track which runs underneath the bridge is the towpath where horses which were towing barges would have walked. Part of the bridge control cabin is just visible behind the trees on the left. This bridge replaced a drawbridge which spanned the canal slightly to the west which was badly damaged when it was struck by a boat in 1929. Steam puffers developed in the late 1850s and became the popular mode of transport on the canal because they were quicker than the horse-drawn 'lighters' (barges). 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.

Medium Colour negative

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