Edinburgh, Union Canal. General view of canal and towing path. Digital image of ED 6953

Description Edinburgh, Union Canal. General view of canal and towing path. Digital image of ED 6953

Date 1900 to 1930

Collection Collection of photographs by George Chrystal and Francis Maxwell Chrystal, photographers, Edinburgh,

Catalogue Number SC 785599

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of ED 6953

Scope and Content Union Canal, Edinburgh (closed 1965 and navigation restored 2002) The canal was 11.3m wide at the surface and 1.5m deep, and followed a winding course throughout its 50.8km length, following the contours on a level course. It was traversed by a series of stone-arched bridges built to a standard specification with most of those which carried minor access roads having iron railings instead of solid stone parapets. The bridges were high enough to accommodate the larger barges and passenger boats which were drawn by two horses walking at a steady pace along the towpath. The bridges were built to a standard plain but elegant design, and the towpath abutments of most of them have been deeply scored by the barge towropes. Their arch keystones were uniformly inscribed with numbers in sequence from east to west, starting at Bridge No 1 at Viewforth in Edinburgh and finishing with Bantaskine Bridge, Bridge No 62, at Falkirk. A few of the keystones also bear human masks, and one set at Bridge No 61, nicknamed the 'Laughin' and Greetin' Bridge', has the one on the eastern face smiling and that on the western face weeping. The Union Canal, the last of Scotland's major canals, was a commercial venture begun in 1818 and completed in 1822. It was built principally as a means of importing coal and lime into Edinburgh, and ran from Port Hopetoun in Edinburgh to join the Forth & Clyde Canal at Camelon, Stirlingshire. However, within 20 years of completion most of its passenger traffic was lost to the railways, and the Edinburgh basins closed in 1922. The rest of the canal remained navigational until 1965 when it was finally closed by an Act of Parliament. In 2002, Britain's largest canal restoration project, The Millennium Link, restored navigation, and with an extension to the Union Canal and a link with the Forth & Clyde Canal through the Falkirk Wheel, boats were once more able to travel between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/785599

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap