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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 717726
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/717726
NT53SE 84 58857 32090
Suspension Bridge (Foot) [NAT]
OS 1:10,000 map, 1992.
Location formerly cited as NT 5885 3209.
NMRS REFERENCE:
Architect: John and Thomas Smith, 1817
EXTERNAL REFERENCE:
Scottish Record Office:
GD/157/2009
The chain bridge, sketch 1817
GD/157/2019
Pen sketch, 1817
RIBA Drawings Collection
Plan and elevation - John and Thomas Smith, 1817
Gentleman's Magazine, 1817-18: LXXXVII, p.175; LXXXVIII, p.268, 367
(Undated) information in NMRS.
(Suspension bridge of wire rope and truss deck type: location cited as NT 588 321). 20th century. Wire-rope cables (two on each side), rod suspenders, lattice truss span, wooden deck. Span about 250 ft (76.2m). Public footbridge.
J R Hume 1977b.
This suspension bridge was designed by John Smith, and built in 1817; it was blown down but successfully re-erected in 1818. It was blown down again and replaced in 1850.
C A Strang 1994.
This bridge carries a footpath across the River Tweed to the SW of Dryburgh Mains steading (NT53SE 219) and within the area known as Bridge Stream. The river here forms the boundary between the parishes of Mertoun (to the N) and St Boswells (to the S).
The location assigned to this record defines the centre of the span. The available map evidence indicates that the bridge extends from NT c. 58859 32047 to NT c. 58861 32119.
The chronology and extent of the successive reconstructions of this structure remain unclear.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 13 January 2006.
Dryburgh Suspension Bridge. The first chain bridge in Scotland, being built in 1817 by Thomas Smith, with a wooden platform suspended from iron chains. It was twice reconstructed, first after a gale in 1818 'on a new and more elegant plan' by the Smiths, and again in 1872, when firm posts were placed along the walkway, with a strong wire rope attached to each post and fixed in the centre of the bridge.
K Cruft, J Dunbar and R Fawcett 2006.
