Hungryside Bridge, Forth and Clyde Canal, Lifting Bridge Detail of underside

Description Hungryside Bridge, Forth and Clyde Canal, Lifting Bridge Detail of underside

Date 29/9/1999

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

Catalogue Number D 58842

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 792999

Scope and Content Detail of underside, Lifting Bridge, Forth & Clyde Canal, Hungryside Bridge, East Dunbartonshire This shows the underside of the lifting bridge which was built in the mid-1930s by Sir William Arrol & Company. Originally the bridge would have been opened vertically by being tilted on the axis behind the ashlar wall in the background. The timber gates which resemble sluice gates at each side of the stone block (centre) may have offered additional support during this operation. The bridge has been strengthened with several girders riveted onto its base. The controls for tilting the bridge were located in an adjoining cabin, although the height of the bridge above the water meant that most canal boats could pass underneath without the bridge having to be opened. The lifting bridge replaced a drawbridge which spanned the canal slightly to the west and which was badly damaged when it was struck by a boat in 1929. 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.

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