Banavie, Railway Swing Bridge over Caledonian Canal Oblique view from east of north east side of bridge Digital image of D 48392 CN

Description Banavie, Railway Swing Bridge over Caledonian Canal Oblique view from east of north east side of bridge Digital image of D 48392 CN

Date 5/5/1999

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

Catalogue Number SC 801402

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 48392 CN

Scope and Content Banavie Railway Swing Bridge, Caledonian Canal, Highland, from east This shows the north-east face of the railway swing bridge which was engineered by Simpson & Wilson and built in 1901. The main span moves in a circular motion around the convex-shaped wall (foreground) until it reaches the iron support (right). Small iron braces on the span have been riveted together into inter-connecting triangles, a common feature of truss bridges. This swing bridge, adjacent to a more modern road swing bridge, is located to the south of Banavie Locks, a series of eight locks known as 'Neptune's Staircase'. The road swing bridge has a control cabin whereas this bridge is hand-operated which means that the bridge-keeper would have to operate the controls in the open air. The Caledonian Canal was designed by Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and built between 1803 and 1822 at a cost of £840,000. It was the first example of a transport network funded by the government in Great Britain. The 96.5km-long canal provides a route for boats travelling between the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean as it runs from the Beauly Firth at Clachnaharry, Inverness, to Loch Linnhe at Corpach. Only 35.4km of this length is man-made while the other 61km runs through four lochs: Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. Unfortunately, at 4.2m deep, the canal was too small for most sea-going ships which led to it being altered and deepened between 1844 and 1847. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/801402

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap