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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders

Date 2007

Event ID 590578

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/590578

The construction of the Albert and Edinburgh Docks made it necessary to have an efficient means of communication between the east and west side of the harbour for road and railway use which led to the construction of the Victoria Swing Bridge from 1871 to 1874. Its girders, with an overall length of 212 ft and clear span of 120 ft, are made of wrought-iron and the clear roadway width is 24 ft. The gross weight is 620 tons, including 60 tons of timber and 240 tons of kentledge counterweight which was, but is no longer, lifted and easily turned by means of hydraulic rams. Its clear span is said to have been the largest of any swing bridge in the United Kingdom until the opening of Kincardine Bridge in 1937. The engineers were Rendel and Robertson (resident engineer J. H. Bostock). The contractors for the foundations were McDonald & Grant and, for the bridge, Skerne Iron Works (late Pease, Hutchison & Co., Darlington who made the ironwork). The cost was about £30 000.

R Paxton and J Shipway 2007

Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.

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