Glasgow Bridge, Forth and Clyde Canal, Swing Bridge View from SW showing relationship to former stables

Description Glasgow Bridge, Forth and Clyde Canal, Swing Bridge View from SW showing relationship to former stables

Date 29/9/1999

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

Catalogue Number D 58850 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 793008

Scope and Content Canal Buildings, Forth & Clyde Canal, Glasgow Bridge, East Dunbartonshire, from south-west This shows the c.1820 canal buildings with the bridge on the right and in the basin in the foreground the 'Janet Telford' which is a barge run by the Forth & Clyde Canal Society. The two-storeyed and seven-bayed canal building has a piended (hipped) roof with a single-storeyed addition on the left. The projecting central bay is pedimented with a blind oculus (circular window). These canal buildings were originally stables where the horses which were used to pull the 'lighters' (barges) were fed, watered and rested. The stables were in a ruinous condition in 1970 but were converted in the late 20th century into a bar and restaurant. The bridge was opened in 1990 and replaced a 1970s culvert. 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

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/486994