Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 578396
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/578396
A handsome three-span masonry arch bridge on a gradient over the Annan, just west of Annan town centre, on the former Carlisle to Portpatrick road. It was built from 1824–27 in Locharbriggs freestone and has arches of 57 ft span. The roadway is 20 ft wide and the width now between parapets is 2712 ft. The cantilevered footways, supported on iron brackets and pilasters above the cutwaters, were a later addition. The bridge, a notable achievement of Robert Stevenson, is pleasingly ornamented with channelled arch rings, helmeted cutwaters and pilasters with battered faces at the abutments. During its construction a temporary timber
bridge costing £500 was provided alongside to accommodate traffic. Stevenson’s son Alan, destined to create the graceful Skerryvore Lighthouse, gained experience on the bridge’s construction. Its completion in August 1826 was celebrated by the workmen drinking a gallon of whisky!
The original bridge on this site, which was in line with the High Street (the present one is off-set), was condemned Annan Bridge as being beyond repair in 1813 by Telford, who proposed one of his standard prefabricated cast-iron lattice spandrel bridges of 150 ft span of the basic Bonar type in ca.1822. This would probably have cost marginally less than a stone bridge, but the local trustees adopted Stevenson’s design. The contractor was John Lowry and the bridge cost about £6000.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
