Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 929429
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/929429
Wellington Bridge, Aberdeen
This suspension bridge, designed by Capt. Samuel Brown RN, was the second of four such bridges to be built in the north-east of Scotland and is the only one now surviving. The bridge, erected in 1829–31, was partially reconstructedin 1930 and closed to vehicular traffic in 1984 when the
new Wellington Bridge, just downstream, was opened and remedial work was carried out on this one.
The main span of 215 ft is suspended from two bar-link chains mounted one above the other on each side of the 25 ft wide deck. Each chain is comprised of three lines of rectangular cross-section eye-bar linkswith short connecting links and cross-bolted in the manner of Telford’s practice
at Menai Bridge from 1822 and Brown’s own practice at Hammersmith Bridge soon afterwards.
The main chains are now the only original ironwork elements of the bridge that have not been replaced, and on visual inspection the drilling and assembly marks punched during fabrication can be seen.
The dip of the chains is 18 ft which gives a dip to span ratio of 1 :12. The towers carrying the chains are bullfaced granite masonry, and have semicircular arches over the roadway. The 1886 date above the crown of the road arch at the north end of the bridge refers to the date that the archway was modified. Calculations for the structure were made for Brown by James Slight who considered this ‘the strongest bridge that Capt. Brown has yet erected’. He calculated the maximum chain stress at about 812 tons sq. in. and all the bars were proved to 9 tons sq. in.
The masonry towers were designed by John Smith, city architect, and built by Robert Mearns. Brown was the contractor for the ironwork and timber deck and the iron chains were supplied by Messrs. Thomson, Forman and Son, Pontypridd, being stamped ‘Cable TF&S’.
The bridge is currently being tastefully refurbished by Aberdeen City Council with retention of almost all of the historic main chains.
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers
