Caledonian Railway Bridge

Caledonian Railway Bridge
The Caledonian Railway Bridge on the left and the George V Bridge on the right
Crosses	River Clyde
Characteristics
Material	Steel
Total length	702 feet 6 inches (214.12 m)
History
Opened	1905 (second bridge)

The Caledonian Railway Bridge is a bridge crossing the River Clyde at Broomielaw in Scotland. It is adjacent to Glasgow Central station.

First bridge

The first bridge

The first bridge was built between 1876-1878 for the Caledonian Railway Company, and opened on 1 August 1879^[1] 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.^[1] 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]

Second bridge

The piers of the first Caledonian railway bridge, with the second bridge next to it

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, ^[3] 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.^[3] The central span is 194 feet (59 m) long with Linville truss girders 15 feet 9 inches (4.80 m) deep.^[3] The parapet girders are around 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, and suspended on curved brackets.^[3] There are a minimum of eight parallel main girders in the width.^[3] 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]

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 "Glasgow, Central Station, Old Approach Viaduct". rcahms.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
↑ "1st Caledonian Railway Bridge". glasgow.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Glasgow, Central Station, New Approach Viaduct". rcahms.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
1 2 Matheson, D. A. (1910). "The New Clyde Bridge of the Caledonian Railway at Glasgow. (Including Appendix and Plates)". Minutes of the Proceedings 182 (1910): 4. doi:10.1680/imotp.1910.16924.
↑ Google (12 September 2014). "Caledonian Railway Bridge" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 12 September 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Caledonian Railway Bridge.

River Clyde, Scotland

Administrative areas	South Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire City of Glasgow West Dunbartonshire Renfrewshire Inverclyde Argyll and Bute

Flows into	Firth of Clyde, then North Channel

Settlements (upstream to downstream)	Elvanfoot Abington Symington New Lanark Lanark Wishaw Motherwell Hamilton Bothwell Uddingston Cambuslang Rutherglen Glasgow Renfrew Clydebank Bearsden Old Kilpatrick Dumbarton Port Glasgow Greenock Helensburgh Gourock Dunoon

Major tributaries (upstream to downstream by confluence)	Daer Water Potrail Water Duneaton Water North Medwyn River South Medwyn River Douglas Water Mouse Water River Nethan Avon Water South Calder Water North Calder Water River Kelvin River Cart River Leven

Major bridges and Crossings (upstream to downstream)	Clyde's Bridge Wolfclyde Bridge Thankerton Bridge Hyndford Bridge Clydesholm Bridge Crossford Bridge Garrion Bridge Clyde Bridge Bothwell Bridge Haughhead Bridge Clydeford Bridge Cambuslang Bridge Bogleshole Road Bridge Auchenshuggle Bridge Dalmarnock Bridge Dalmarnock Railway Bridge Rutherglen Bridge Polmadie Bridge King's Bridge St. Andrew's Suspension Bridge Pipe Bridge and Weir Albert Bridge City Union Bridge Victoria Bridge South Portland Street Suspension Bridge Glasgow Bridge Caledonian Railway Bridge George V Bridge Tradeston Bridge Kingston Bridge Clyde Arc Bell's Bridge Millennium Bridge Clyde Tunnel Renfrew Ferry Erskine Ferry Erskine Bridge

Longest UK rivers Severn Thames Trent Great Ouse Wye Ure/Ouse Tay Spey Clyde Tweed Avon Nene Eden Dee

Coordinates: 55°51′20.8″N 4°15′32.2″W / 55.855778°N 4.258944°W / 55.855778; -4.258944

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, November 28, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.