General view from WSW

Description General view from WSW

Date 15/2/2002

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

Catalogue Number E 16469 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 796885

Scope and Content Union Canal Bridge No 1, Viewforth, Edinburgh, from west-south-west This shows a pair of swans swimming towards Bridge No 1, which was rebuilt in this form around 1900. The bridge has octagonal piers which support a railed parapet. A corbelled plinth supporting a panel of a tree and a fish surmounts the arch. The people on the left are walking along the towpath of the canal where horses would have walked while pulling 'lighters' (barges). The original name of the canal was the 'Glasgow & Edinburgh Union Canal' and the panels on this bridge represent this fact. The panel with the tree and the fish on the west side represents Glasgow and the panel with the castle on the east side represents Edinburgh. 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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