Kirkintilloch, Forth and Clyde Canal, Hillhead Bridge View from West North West Digital image of D/61856

Description Kirkintilloch, Forth and Clyde Canal, Hillhead Bridge View from West North West Digital image of D/61856

Date 29/3/2000

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

Catalogue Number SC 793072

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 61856

Scope and Content Hillhead Bridge, Forth & Clyde Canal, Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, from west-north-west This shows the north front of the swing bridge which was engineered by Crouch & Hogg and built by Sir William Arrol & Company in 1938. In the foreground and in front of the hipped roof control cabin (centre) there are timber beams which act as a support for the bridge when it has been moved into an open position. The controls for opening the bridge to allow larger ships along the canal were located in this cabin. Originally a bascule bridge (drawbridge) spanned the canal slightly to the south but was replaced by this bridge when it became too small for the increases of car usage from the 1930s onwards. 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/793072

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap