Architecture Notes

Event ID 794823

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/794823

NS88SE 110.01 8756 8028

This bridge has been culverted.

The Forth and Clyde Canal Guidebook 1991.

The commencement of a new tram service in Falkirk necessitated the rebuilding of this bridge in 1905. However, until March 1906 the trams were forced to stop at either side of the bridge, as the uprights which supported the overhead cable constituted an obstruction on the towpath. Consequently the owners of the canal, the Caledonian Railway, refused to allow the bridges to be used until the gantries of the overhead cable were reconstructed with an extended cantilever spanning the towpath.

G Hutton 1993.

The canal is culverted at this point.

H Brown 1997.

This bridge, and that at Bainsford, were the first of the canal's bascule bridges to be replaced by large steel swing bridges. This enabled Larbert and Stenhousemuir to be served by Falkirk's new 'Circular' tram route, which ran from the town centre. The full opening of the route was delayed by these bridges, as the Caledonian Railway, the owners of the Canal, insisted that the cable gantries should be modified as they were an impediment to the ropes of horse-drawn barges. The tram system became fully operational by March 1906, after the gantries were reconstructed with a cantilever straddling the towpath.

G Hutton 1998.

This bridge is clearly marked as a draw bridge on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Stirlingsgire 1864, sheet xxx). Camelon Road is shown as crossing the canal at this location on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1982) and on the OS Basic Scale digital map (2000).

Information from RCAHMS (MD) 2 November 2000.