Edinburgh, Union Canal. General view.

Description Edinburgh, Union Canal. General view.

Date 1900 to 1930

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

Catalogue Number SC 785654

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of ED 7343

Scope and Content Union Canal, Edinburgh (closed 1965 and navigation restored 2002) The canal was 11.3m wide at the surface, 6.1m wide at the bottom, and 1.5m deep. From east to west, it covered a distance of 50.8km, following the contours on a level course, and cutting through embankments, rich agricultural farmland and pleasant wooded countryside on its route to the west. A broad towpath followed the line of the bank, and a series of elegant stone-arched bridges spanned the waterway. Most of the bridges which carried minor access roads over the canal had iron railings instead of solid stone parapets. The bridges were of a standard plain but elegant segmental-arched design and all looked similar but were not the same, having differences in span and width. They were all designed to accommodate barges and low passenger boats, and each bridge was numbered, with the numbers carved on the arch keystone in sequence from east to west, 62 in all. Bridge No 1 was at Viewforth, Edinburgh, and Bridge No 62 at Bantaskine in Falkirk. 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/785654

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap