Caledonian Railway Bridge | |
|---|---|
 The Caledonian Railway Bridge on the left and the George V Bridge on the right | |
| Coordinates | 55°51′21″N4°15′32″W / 55.8558°N 4.2589°W |
| Crosses | River Clyde |
| Characteristics | |
| Material | Steel |
| Total length | 702 feet 6 inches (214.12 m) |
| History | |
| Opened | 1905 (second bridge) |
| Location | |
 | |
The Caledonian Railway Bridge is a bridge crossing the River Clyde at Broomielaw in Scotland. It is adjacent to Glasgow Central Station.
The first bridge was built between 1876 and 1878 for the Caledonian Railway Company and opened on 1 August 1879. It was engineered by Blyth and Cunningham and built by Sir William Arrol & Co. [1] It consisted of wrought iron lattice girders linked at the top by a light arched lattice girder, and carried on a cast iron arch (visible in the photograph) over twin piers in the river. The piers are formed of cast iron cylinders sunk to bedrock and filled with concrete, and then extended above the river with Dalbeattie granite. [1]
The approach span over Clyde Place to the south was 60 feet (18 m) long and over Broomielaw to the north of the river was 90 feet (27 m) long. [1] The navigation spans were 164 feet (50 m), 184 feet (56 m) and 152 feet (46 m) long. [1] The bridge carried four tracks into the new Glasgow Central Station. [2]
In 1966–1967, the girders and tracks were removed, leaving the pillars in the water, after resignalling meant it was no longer needed. [3]
The current, second bridge was built in 1899–1905 during the expansion of Central Station, to a design by D. A. Matheson, chief engineer of the Caledonian Railway. Arrol and Co. was the contractor for this bridge as well. [3]
The foundations for the bridge are rectangular sunk caissons, sunk by the compressed air chamber method used on the Forth Bridge to a depth of up to 48 feet (15 m) below the river bed. The central span is 194 feet (59 m) long with Linville truss girders 15 feet 9 inches (4.80 m) deep. The parapet girders are around 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, and suspended on curved brackets. There are a minimum of eight parallel main girders in the width. The spans are of lengths 160 feet (49 m), 200 feet (61 m) and 178 feet (54 m), and the structure contains 11,000 tonnes (11,000 long tons; 12,000 short tons) of steel. [3] The total length of the bridge between the abutments is 702 feet 6 inches (214.12 m). [4]
The bridge varies in width from 35 to 62.5 metres (115 to 205 ft) and carries up to ten tracks. [3] It leads immediately into Glasgow Central Station on the north bank of the river. [5] At the time of its opening, it was believed to be the widest railway bridge in existence. [4]
The Tay Bridge carries rail traffic across the Firth of Tay in Scotland between Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife. Its span is 2.75 miles. It is the second bridge to occupy the site.
The City of Glasgow Union Railway - City Union Line, also known as the Tron Line, was a railway company founded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1864 to build a line connecting the railway systems north and south of the River Clyde, and to build a central passenger terminus and a general goods depot for the city. The through line, running from south-west to north-east across the city, opened in 1870–71, and the passenger terminal was St Enoch railway station, opened in 1876. The railway bridge across the Clyde was the first in the city.
Bridge Street railway station, now disused, was the original Glasgow terminus of the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway; jointly owned by the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway (GP&G), which later merged with the Caledonian Railway, and the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (GPK&A), which became part of the Glasgow & South Western Railway.
Connel Bridge is a cantilever bridge that spans Loch Etive at Connel in Scotland. The bridge takes the A828 road across the narrowest part of the loch, at the Falls of Lora. It is a category B listed structure.
The Polloc and Govan Railway was an early mineral railway near Glasgow in Scotland, constructed to bring coal and iron from William Dixon's collieries and ironworks to the River Clyde for onward transportation.
The Alloa Swing Bridge was a railway swing bridge across the River Forth that connected Throsk and Alloa as part of the Alloa Railway. The structure was in use from 1885 until 1968.
The Slateford Aqueduct is a navigable aqueduct that carries the Union Canal over the Water of Leith at Slateford, Edinburgh, Scotland. Completed in 1822, it has eight arches and spans a length of 500 feet (150 m).
The Rutherglen and Coatbridge Railway was a railway line in Scotland built by the Caledonian Railway to shorten the route from the Coatbridge area to Glasgow. It opened in 1865. It was later extended to Airdrie in 1886, competing with the rival North British Railway. Soon after a further extension was built from Airdrie to Calderbank and Newhouse.
Sir William Arrol & Co. was a Scottish civil engineering and construction business founded by William Arrol and based in Glasgow. It built some of the most famous bridges in the United Kingdom including the second Tay Bridge, the Forth Bridge and Tower Bridge in London.
Lyne Viaduct is a viaduct at Lyne in the Scottish Borders of Scotland. It consists of three stone skew arches and a plate girder approach span over a minor road and was built to carry the Symington to Peebles branch line of the Caledonian Railway over Lyne Water to the west of Peebles. Now closed to rail traffic the bridge is used as a footpath.
The Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway was a railway company in Scotland, built to serve coal and ironstone pits in the Hamilton and Bothwell areas, and convey the mineral to Glasgow and to ironworks in the Coatbridge area. It was allied to the North British Railway, and it opened in 1877. Passenger services followed.
The City Union Bridge is a bridge on the River Clyde in Glasgow. It was opened in 1899. It was once a busy main route in and out of St Enoch station but that terminus closed in 1966 and was demolished in 1977, and since then the bridge is only used for empty stock movements, as the bridge forms a key link between Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central. If a project known as Glasgow Crossrail goes ahead then the bridge and associated track will see passenger services once more.
The North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway was a company established by Act of Parliament in 1871 to construct and operate a railway line from north of Arbroath via Montrose to Kinnaber Junction, 38 miles (61 km) south of Aberdeen. The company was originally a subsidiary of the North British Railway but was absorbed into its parent in 1880.
Events from the year 1848 in Scotland.
King's Bridge is a road bridge spanning the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. The bridge links Hutchesontown to the west and Glasgow Green to the east near the city centre.
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was designed by English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge, although this is not its official name.
Westburn Viaduct, also known as Carmyle Viaduct, is a disused railway bridge over the River Clyde between Carmyle in Glasgow and Westburn (Cambuslang) in South Lanarkshire. It is constructed of a steel lattice frame with sandstone pillars and has three main spans over the water.
The Findhorn Viaduct is a railway bridge near Forres in Moray, Scotland. Built for the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway between 1856 and 1858 by Joseph Mitchell, with ironwork by William Fairbairn & Sons of Manchester, the viaduct carries the railway line over the River Findhorn approximately 1.7 km (1.1 mi) west of the town of Forres.
The Tay Viaduct, also known as the West Railway Bridge, is a single-track railway viaduct in Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is around 440 m (1,440 ft) long. It carries the Scottish Central Railway, via a pronounced curve, across the River Tay to and from Perth railway station, 0.5 mi (800 m) to the west. Built in 1864, the work of London's Francis Freeman & Lee, it replaced an earlier double-track timber viaduct dating from 1849. The first pier of today's structure is for a double track, but the line is now single.
