City Union Railway Bridge, Glasgow (to give it its full title), is a Category B listed bridge built to serve routes to the south into and out of the now demolished St Enoch's Station. The first bridge here was built in 1864-7, carrying two tracks across the Clyde for the City of Glasgow Union Railway. But that was soon found to be inadequate. This new bridge was built in 1897-1899, to carry four tracks. The contractors of the earlier bridgehad been Brassey and Co. This time the engineer was William Melville (c.1850-1920), for the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Company, and the contractors were Morrison and Mason for the foundations and masonry, and the major company (builders of the Forth Bridge, the Tay Bridge and London's Tower Bridge) of Sir William Arrol & Co for the steelwork (see Williamson et al. 624). The five-arched bridge is rather low because it was built below the original bridge, to preserve the railway service, until it could be taken over. The approaches are brick, with attractive crenellated turrets at each end. The parapet is Gothic too.
Close-up of one end of the bridge.
This bridge had the distinction of being was the first of the permanent bridges over the Clyde to have a steel superstructure ("Glasgow's Clyde Bridges"). It continued to serve the Glasgow and South-Western Railway until the closure of St Enoch's station, and some of the tracks are still used, mainly for freight ("Glasgow, Clyde Street...").
Photographs by Colin Price, with commentary and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or to the Victorian Web in a print document. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Bibliography
"Glasgow's Clyde Bridges." A useful Heritage Trail leaflet produced by the Institution of Civil Engineers with support from Glasgow City Council, n.d.
"Glasgow, Clyde Sreet, Union Railway Bridge." Canmore. Web. 10 September 2019.
William Arrol & Co. Grace's Guide. Web. 10 September 2019.
"William Melville". Grace's Guide. Web. 10 September 2019.
Williamson, Elizabeth, Ann Riches and Macolm Higgs. Glasgow. The Buildings of Scotland series. London: Penguin, 1990.
Created 10 September 2019