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St. Devenick's Bridge (locally known as the Shakkin' Briggie, or as Morison's Bridge) is a disused suspension footbridge which crosses the River Dee from Ardoe to Cults near Aberdeen in Scotland.
The foundation stone was placed on 27 August 1836, and the bridge was opened in 1837 (1840 according to Robertson). It was funded by Rev. Dr. George Morison (1758–1845), at a cost of £1,400. Morison, son of Aberdeen Provost Robert Morison, was the minister at Banchory-Devenick Parish Church from 1785, and inherited his elder brother Thomas' estate. He carried out work on behalf of his parishioners including arranging distribution of vaccines, supply of food during the 1800 famine, setting up a savings bank, and building a school.
Morison proposed the bridge to link his church on the south bank of the Dee to 700 parishioners resident on the north bank, who were at the time crossing to the church by boat every Sunday. The bridge was designed by Aberdeen's City Architect John Smith, who had previously worked with Captain Samuel Brown on the Wellington Suspension Bridge in Aberdeen, who helped Thomas Telford design the Bridge of Don, and who designed the nearby Bridge of Dee. St. Devenick's Bridge was Smith's only solo suspension bridge design.
The bridge spans 54.9 metres (180 feet) between stone piers and cast iron towers. The suspension chains comprise 3-inch-diameter (76 mm), 6-foot-long (1.8 m) cast-iron bars, anchored into stone anchor blocks. The southern anchor block is now in the middle of the river, which has changed course considerably since the bridge was built. The timber bridge deck and parapets were built by Morison's friend George Barclay. The lack of any significant metal stiffening of the bridge deck led to a flexibility which gave the bridge its popular name.
The foundations and piers were built by George Donaldson, and the iron parts cast by George Duffus & Co.
After Morison's death, the bridge was maintained by the Kirk Session. At present, it is unclear if any body has legal responsibility for the bridge. A newspaper headline in 1958 stated that it was The Bridge That Nobody Owns. Although its legal status remains unclear, Aberdeen City Council is currently active in considering the bridge's future.[ citation needed ]
The bridge was damaged by floods in 1876, 1914 and most seriously in October 1920, when floodwaters rose above the level of the bridge deck. Public funds were sought and the bridge reopened in September 1922. However, due to erosion, the Dee shifted its course from 1955 onwards, sweeping away the southern approach spans, and in 1984 the decking was removed as a safety precaution. The bridge is a Category B listed structure, [1] and is now derelict.
In recent years (as of 2007) plans have been made to restore the bridge and extend it to the south bank. It was proposed to form a Trust to take on responsibility for the bridge. However, funding for restoration (estimated at £775,000 in 1990) has not been secured.
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Chelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank, and split between the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. There have been two Chelsea Bridges, on the site of what was an ancient ford.
A suspension bridge usually has main cables, anchored at each end of the bridge. Any load applied to the bridge is transformed into a tension in these main cables. The earliest suspension bridges had the cables anchored in the ground at either end of the bridge, but some modern suspension bridges anchor the cables to the ends of the bridge itself. The earliest suspension bridges had no towers or piers, but these are present in the majority of larger suspension bridges. Although the earlier types of suspension bridges are suitable only for relatively short spans, all of the 14 longest bridges in the world are suspension bridges. Ignoring the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, there were two independent inventions of the suspension bridge, in Eurasia and in Central and South America.
The Dee Bridge disaster was a rail accident that occurred on 24 May 1847 in Chester, England, that resulted in five fatalities. It revealed the weakness of cast iron beam bridges reinforced by wrought iron tie bars, and brought criticism of its designer, Robert Stephenson, the son of George Stephenson.
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Captain Sir Samuel Brown of Netherbyres KH FRSE was an early pioneer of chain design and manufacture and of suspension bridge design and construction. He is best known for the Union Bridge of 1820, the first vehicular suspension bridge in Britain.
Angers Bridge, also called the Basse-Chaîne Bridge, was a suspension bridge over the Maine River in Angers, France. It was designed by Joseph Chaley and Bordillon, and built between 1836 and 1839. The bridge collapsed on 16 April 1850, while a battalion of French soldiers was marching across it, killing over 200 of them.
Cast-iron architecture is the use of cast iron in buildings and objects, ranging from bridges and markets to warehouses, balconies and fences. Refinements developed during the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century made cast iron relatively cheap and suitable for a range of uses, and by the mid-19th century it was common as a structural material, and particularly for elaborately patterned architectural elements such as fences and balconies, until it fell out of fashion after 1900 as a decorative material, and was replaced by modern steel and concrete for structural purposes.
The architecture of Aberdeen, Scotland, is known for the use of granite as the principal construction material. The stone, which has been quarried in and around the city, has given Aberdeen the epithet The Granite City, or more romantically, and less commonly used, the Silver City, after the mica in the stone which sparkles in the sun.
The Bridge of Dee or Brig o Dee is a road bridge over the River Dee in Aberdeen, Scotland. The term is also used for the surrounding area of the city. Dating from 1527, the bridge crosses at what was once the City of Aberdeen's southern boundary. This was the site of a battle in 1639 between the Royalists under Viscount Aboyne and the Covenanters who were led by the Marquess of Montrose and Earl Marischal. This was the only substantial action of the First Bishops' War, and it took place after the peace treaty had already been signed.
John Smith was a Scottish architect. His career started in 1805 and he was appointed as the official city architect of Aberdeen in 1807, the first person to hold this post. Together with Archibald Simpson, he contributed significantly to the architecture of Aberdeen, and many of the granite buildings that gave the city the nickname 'The Granite City' or also 'The Silver City' are attributed to them.
Banchory-Devenick is a village approximately two kilometres south of the city of Aberdeen, Scotland in the Lower Deeside area of Aberdeenshire. The village should not be confused with the historic civil parish of the same name which spanned the River Dee until 1891, its northern part lying in Aberdeenshire and its southern part in Kincardineshire. In that year the northern part became part of the neighbouring parish of Peterculter, the southern part remaining as the parish of Banchory-Devenick. The village of Banchory-Devenick is on the B9077 road, and the ancient Causey Mounth passes directly through the village. An historic graveyard dating to 1157 AD is present at the village of Banchory-Devenick. Other historic features in the vicinity include Saint Ternan's Church, Muchalls Castle and the Lairhillock Inn.
Coalport Bridge is a cast iron arch bridge between Coalport and Preens Eddy in Shropshire, England.
Gaunless Bridge was a railway bridge on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It was completed in 1823 and is one of the first railway bridges to be constructed of iron and the first to use an iron truss. It is also of an unusual lenticular truss design.
The Wellington Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge crossing the River Dee from Ferryhill to Craiglug in Aberdeen, north east Scotland. Designed by Captain Samuel Brown and the Aberdeen City Architect John Smith, it was opened to pedestrians in November 1830 and to traffic in May 1831. The chain bridge was closed in 1984 to vehicles and then pedestrians in 2002, but was restored in 2006/07 and pedestrian use was re-instated in 2008.
Ferry Bridge is a Victorian pedestrian bridge over the River Trent in Staffordshire, England. The bridge and its extension, the Stapenhill Viaduct, link Burton upon Trent town centre to the suburb of Stapenhill half a mile away on the other side of the river.
The Surtees Rail Bridge is a rail bridge on the Tees Valley Line over the River Tees in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. The bridge is south of Stockton-on-Tees town centre and just north of the adjacent Surtees Bridge which carries the A66 road. The bridge is built on the site of a series of Tees Bridges alternating between two adjacent crossing sites.
Park Bridge is a road bridge in Aberdeenshire, Scotland which crosses the River Dee. It is currently open to pedestrians and cyclists, and it also carried vehicular traffic until February 2019.