Inverness, Tomnahurich Swing Bridge over Caledonian Canal Oblique general view from south west of south side of bridge, with control cabin in foreground Digital image of D 64121 CN

Description Inverness, Tomnahurich Swing Bridge over Caledonian Canal Oblique general view from south west of south side of bridge, with control cabin in foreground Digital image of D 64121 CN

Date 30/3/1999

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

Catalogue Number SC 804875

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 64121 CN

Scope and Content Tomnahurich Swing Bridge, Caledonian Canal, Inverness, Highland, from south-west This shows the control cabin (centre) and the 1938 swing bridge (right), which was built by Sir William Arrol & Company to designs by Crouch & Hogg and T Shirley Hawkins. The control cabin has windows on three sides and is topped by a black-painted string-course. Behind the white-painted wall with alternating black-painted copes (left) there is a flashing warning sign and a movable barrier which warns road users when the bridge is open. Originally, another movable bridge spanned the canal at this point which probably became out-dated or too weak for the volume of traffic. The control cabin is part of the original design, which is unusual, as most of the other 1930s swing bridges over the canal have cabins which were added in the late 20th century. 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/804875

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap