L. Bruce Keith (Surveyor)
Bruce Keith: Bridgescapes
The second meeting of the session was held at the Baptist Church Centre, Dumfries and on-line.
Bruce Keith, a retired surveyor, environmentalist and author gave a talk about bridge building in Scotland.
From an early age he had been fascinated by bridges. His father had been a Civil Engineer involved in building bridges in Nigeria and later for Inverness County Council. In 2000, as a personal Millennium project, Bruce started on a journey to celebrate and record the history of pedestrian, road, and rail bridges in Scotland. Assisting him in this project was a young photographer, Lewis Matheson. It was not until seventeen years later that all the information had been gathered and the photographs taken and the book Bridgescapes was published.
Bruce’s entertaining talk was enhanced by excellent photographs displaying bridges from the 14th to the 21st century. He began with Scotland’s earliest surviving single-arch bridge, the Brig o’ Balgownie which crosses the river Don in Aberdeenshire and was built about 1320. The earliest multiple arched bridge is the Old Stirling Bridge built in the 1400s or 1500s. At Carrbridge, near Aviemore, the oldest packhorse bridge across the river Dulnain was built about 1717. It survived the “muckle spate” in 1829, a great flood that devastated and destroyed many bridges.
The first strategic network of roads and bridges in the Scottish Highlands was constructed by General Wade to supress any Jacobite revival. He oversaw more than 250 miles of roads and 40 bridges, including the Tay Bridge at Aberfeldy, designed by William Adam, father of the famous architect Robert Adam. This is a five arched bridge with baroque details including four obelisks. By 1740 Major William Caulfeild had become responsible for continuing the building of military roads and bridges.
Bruce mentioned some early bridges in the Scottish Borders, the Tweed Bridge at Peebles reconstructed in 1663 using stone from the destroyed St Andrews church. Pease Bridge at Cockburnspath, built in 1786 by David Henderson, then the tallest bridge in the world, it has four arches. Captain Samuel Brown’s Union Chain Bridge, a suspension bridge opened by 1820 to span the river Tweed and connect England and Scotland. It was then the longest wrought iron suspension bridge in the world. Niedpath Railway Viaduct over the River Tweed near Peebles was opened in 1864. It has eight stone skew arches and was built to carry a branch line of the Caledonian railway. And Leaderfoot Railway Viaduct at Trimontium, near Melrose, a bridge of nineteen arches which crosses the River Tweed and was opened in 1863.
Included in his talk were some bridges in our region, Dervorgilla Bridge, Dumfries which crosses the river Nith, rebuilt in 1621 after flooding had destroyed an earlier stone bridge of 1432. Loch Ken Railway Viaduct, a lattice girder bridge built by 1860, this is the last surviving bridge of that type. Also, suspension footbridges, the one across the river Nith in Dumfries built in 1875 and the Cree Bridge at Newton Stewart opened in 1911. Also, Boatford Bridge, which crosses the river Esk at Langholm. Unfortunately, on the opening day in 1871 it collapsed when about 200 people were on the bridge. Bruce showed an interesting copy of a photograph taken when the bridge had just collapsed. It was rebuilt in 1873.
Bruce also talked about some famous Scottish bridge builders. Thomas Telford born at Glendinning, Dumfriesshire was the founder and first President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. He built many bridges and canals in the United Kingdom including Tongland Bridge, over the river Dee near Kirkcudbright. He also designed the Craigellachie Bridge, a cast iron single span bridge across the River Spey, Moray.
Sir John Rennie, third President of the Institute of Civil Engineers, designed a new bridge with five semi-elliptical arches to cross the Tweed at Kelso after the previous bridge had partially collapsed and been washed away. He later went on to build Waterloo Bridge over the River Thames in London.
The arrival of the railways resulted in the building of many railway bridges and viaducts.
The Kilmarnock and Troon Railway Laigh Milton Viaduct, built in 1811-1812, is the oldest surviving railway viaduct in Scotland. Glenfinnan Viaduct on the West Highland Line connecting Fort William to Mallaig, opened in 1901. In the summer, a popular tourist attraction was to board the steam train “The Jacobite”. The Almond Valley Viaduct was opened in 1842 for the first intercity railway linking Edinburgh to Glasgow. It has thirty-six arches and was built by engineer John Miller. Findhorn Viaduct, Tomatin, was designed by Murdoch Paterson and John Fowler to carry the Perth to Inverness railway over the valley of the river Findhorn. John Fowler was one of the engineers who designed the Forth Rail Bridge which opened in 1890. Ballochmyle Viaduct, the highest railway arch over water, crosses the river Ayr and was designed by John Miller. The original Tay Bridge over the Firth of Tay was built of poor material and destroyed by a gale on 28th December 1879. It was rebuilt and opened in 1887.
Bridges built during the 20th and 21st century were represented by Kylesku Bridge in north west Scotland, a curved concrete box girder bridge opened in 1984. The Erskine Bridge, the largest cable bridge across the river Clyde was designed by William Brown. Kessock Bridge, Inverness, a cable bridge across the Beauly Firth opened in 1982. Tradeston Bridge (colloquially known as the Squiggly Bridge) across the river Clyde, Glasgow, opened in 2009. Kincardine Bridge, a road opening swing bridge crossing the Firth of Forth, was built in1936. It was followed in 2008 by the Clackmannanshire road bridge.
This interesting talk with excellent visual images ended with an aerial image of the three bridges spanning the Firth of Forth from South Queensferry to North Queensferry. The Forth Rail Bridge opened in 1890 is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Forth Road Bridge opened in 1964 and the Queensferry Crossing with three towers the highest in the United Kingdom opened in 2017.
P W