Forth and Clyde Canal, Auchinstarry Swing Bridge View from South Digital image of D/61838

Description Forth and Clyde Canal, Auchinstarry Swing Bridge View from South Digital image of D/61838

Date 29/2/2000

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

Catalogue Number SC 793026

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 61838

Scope and Content Auchinstarry Swing Bridge, Forth & Clyde Canal, North Lanarkshire, from south This shows the control cabin for the electrically-operated swing bridge which was built in 1938. The concrete-built structure has a piended (hipped) roof and the window has been covered with a metal plate. There were pedestrian walkways at each side of the roadway of the bridge. During the 20th century there have been many changes at Auchinstarry, like many other places along the Forth & Clyde Canal. In the early 20th century there was a drawbridge spanning the canal with a quarry to the north. Whinstone kerbs and gravel from this quarry was transported to Glasgow along the canal. By the late of the 20th century the quarry had been converted into a public park and in 2000 a new road bridge further to the east replaced this swing bridge. 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.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/793026

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap