The Wellington Suspension Bridge (also known as the Chain Bridge and Craiglug 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.
Aberdeen was undergoing rapid expansion in the early 19th century and landowners in Torry, the Menzies family of Pitfodels, wished to capitalise on the opportunities arising from the establishment of the turnpike road between Aberdeen and Stonehaven in 1799. A series of legal disputes as to exact ownership of the lands ended in arbitration. [1]
An Act of Parliament was eventually obtained by the Heritors of Nigg and the Road Trustees in 1828 for a bridge to replace the Craiglug Ferry. The City Architect in Aberdeen John Smith and his rival Archibald Simpson were asked to tender design proposals for the bridge and its approach roads from the north and south side in June 1829. [2] [3] The design for the architectural sections was awarded to Smith working in collaboration with Captain Samuel Brown who undertook the engineering designs of the suspension and span. The metalwork was manufactured at the nearby Ferryhill Foundry owned by James Abernethy (1809–1879), [4] a cousin of James Abernethy. [5] Abernethy was the engineer who supervised the work. [6]
In March 1830 the trustees chose to name the bridge after the Iron Duke, Wellington, [6] although it is also known as the Chain Bridge [7] and the Craiglug Bridge. [8] The foundation stone was put in place in 1829 and the bridge was in pedestrian use from November 1830. Six months later, in May 1831, it was opened to use by vehicles. [3]
The costs of building the bridge totalled £10,000. [9]
Pairs of bar-link saddle chains one above another with suspender rods hold the deck, which is 220 feet (67 m) in length and 22 feet (6.7 m) wide. [9] [lower-alpha 1] Thomas Telford's method of "three lines of rectangular cross-section eye-bar links with short connecting links and cross-bolted" was copied from his 1822 Menai Suspension Bridge construction. The chains were installed on either side of the deck, one above the other with a dip of 18 feet (5.5 m), giving a span ratio of 1:12. James Slight described the bridge as "the strongest bridge that Capt. Brown has yet erected" [10] and he assessed the highest chain stress was around "812 tons sq. in. and all the bars were proved to 9 tons sq. in." [10] The chains bear the stamp "Cable TF&S" and were obtained from Thomson, Forman and Son, of Pontypridd. [10]
The chains are anchored at each end to twin pylons with semi-circular archways; these were constructed from bull-faced granite by Robert Mearns. Modifications were made to the north end archway in 1886 and a stone engraved with the date is mounted at the apex of the arch to signify this. [6] [10]
The approach roads, designed by Smith with the bridge, were 3 miles (4.8 km) in length and incorporated a slow ramp from College Street on the northern side; a new road also ran from around Nigg to the Craiglug side on the south approach. [6]
An octagonal toll house, also designed by Smith, was originally sited on the northwest corner of the bridge. [6] [11]
The bridge underwent some restoration work in 1930 when steel replaced the cast iron bearers and wrought iron suspenders. [9] Of the original iron work, only the main chains remained. [10]
The toll house was derelict in 1964 and was demolished soon after. [6] [11]
Further restoration work was done on the bridge in 1984 after a replacement bridge, the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, [3] was finished, as this enabled the suspension bridge to be closed to vehicles. [10] Due to safety concerns, in 2002 it was also closed to pedestrians. [12] After Aberdeen City Council engineers undertook further work to preserve and strengthen the bridge, it resumed use as a pedestrian walkway and cycle lane in 2008. [13] The main chains were still retained. [10] The work was carried out in four phases. The first step comprised repairing welding of the main chains and saddle chain replacement. The next stage involved renewing the timber decking and structural re-painting. Phase three concentrated on the granite towers and included re-pointing and cleaning; the final stage was to provide architectural lighting. Total costs were estimated at £760,000 and were expected to preserve the bridge for another century. [14]
Aberdeen City councillors were informed in October 2007 that the cost for the first three phases had increased to £995,000 and the estimate for the final stage would be £100,000. [15]
From 1979 until 2010 it was listed as a scheduled monument; from 2010, it was included on the list of Category A listed structures. [9]
The A945 passes under the bridge. On 20 October 2017, an off-service double-decker bus struck the bridge. [16]
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical suspenders, have a long history in many mountainous parts of the world.
Aberdeen South is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
Torry is an area within Aberdeen, Scotland, forming part of the county of Kincardineshire.
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.
The city of Aberdeen, Scotland, contains a number of areas and suburbs, some of which are historically separate settlements that have been absorbed by the expanding city.
The network of transportation in Aberdeen is extensive and diversified, like that of many comparably sized cities.
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.
St Devenick's Bridge is a disused suspension footbridge which crosses the River Dee from Ardoe to Cults near Aberdeen in Scotland.
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.
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.
James Abernethy FRSE MICE was a Scottish civil engineer.
Aberdeen Ferryhill railway station was the temporary terminus of the Aberdeen Railway and the first railway station to serve the city of Aberdeen. Regular passenger service began on 1 April 1850. As the station is located some distance south of the city centre, omnibuses and luggage vans were employed to complete the journey into the city. In 1853, the Deeside Railway was opened, which also used Ferryhill as a terminus. In 1854, the railway was extended and a new terminus, Aberdeen Guild Street railway station, was opened on 2 August. This station was located closer to the city centre, approximately where the present-day Aberdeen railway station was later built.
Aberdeen Harbour, rebranded as the Port of Aberdeen in 2022, is a sea port located in the city of Aberdeen on the east coast of Scotland. The port was first established in 1136 and has been continually redeveloped over the centuries to provide a base for significant fishing and ship building industries. Since the 1970s it has provided support to the offshore oil and gas industry operating in the North Sea and it is the main commercial port in the north east of Scotland.
Events from the year 1830 in Scotland.
The 2017 Aberdeen City Council election took place on 4 May 2017 to elect members of Aberdeen City Council. The election used the 13 wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with each ward electing three or four Councillors using the single transferable vote system a form of proportional representation, with a total of 45 Councillors elected, an increase in two members from 2012.
The Cambus O' May bridge spans the River Dee to the east of Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was paid for by the estate of Alexander Gordon, who had grown up nearby. The bridge was built in 1905 and is a suspension footbridge 164 feet (50 m) long and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide. The bridge was rebuilt in 1988 for safety reasons but was badly damaged in the December 2015 Storm Frank. It was repaired and reopened in April 2021.
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