Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 929288
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/929288
Balmoral Estates Bridge
This bridge over the Dee, commissioned by Prince Albert in 1854, was designed by I. K. Brunel and built in 1856–57. The main structural elements are two riveted plate girders spanning 125 ft between granite abutments. The timber deck is carried on 12 in. deep plate cross-beams.
The roadway is 13 ft wide between the plate girders which are 612 ft deep. Brunel touches are the convex flanges, 26 in. wide at the top and 33 in. at the bottom and the pierced upper part of each girder to provide a lattice
effect in the parapet. There are four pairs of intermediate stiffeners per girder at 25 ft centres.
The ironwork for the bridge was made by Rowland Brotherhood, Railway Works, Chippenham and was riveted on site. The erection of the bridge was superintended by Balmoral Estates factor Dr Andrew Robertson.
It is understood that Queen Victoria did not consider the bridge’s appearance sufficiently ornamental and that for this reason the bridge was not mentioned in her book gleaned from the Journal of our life in the highlands (1868).
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
