View from north west

Description View from north west

Date 14/10/2001

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

Catalogue Number E 15933 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 797011

Scope and Content West Hermiston Bridge, Union Canal, Edinburgh, from north-west This shows the west side of West Hermiston Bridge, which was designed and built by Baird around 1820. A square and capped pier supports the parapet which is railed over the arch. Bridges on public highways had stone parapets whereas bridges on subsidiary or estate roads had railed parapets. The serial number (12) of the bridge is incised on the projecting keystone of the arch. A projecting string-course runs beneath the parapet. This bridge is identical in design to the neighbouring bridge to the east, Mid Hermiston Bridge (Bridge No 11). Every bridge on the Union Canal has a serial number which runs east-west from Bridge No 1, Edinburgh to Bridge No 62, Falkirk. All the bridges on the Union Canal were built with dressed stone which was in contrast to the many timber bascule bridges (drawbridges) on the Forth & Clyde Canal. The government authorised the construction of the Union Canal in 1817 and appointed Hugh Baird (1770-1827) as the chief engineer. The main purpose of the canal was to provide an economical route for the transportation of coal and lime between Edinburgh and Glasgow via the Forth & Clyde Canal (1768-90). The 51km-long canal was opened in 1822 at a cost of £461,760, almost double the estimate, and it ran from Lock 16 at Camelon, Falkirk to Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. Except where the two canals are joined at Falkirk, the canal was built with no locks because it followed the contours of the hills. The Union Canal was closed in 1965, two years after the Forth & Clyde Canal, 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 both canals to reopen in 2002. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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