The Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer: With an Introductory History of Roads and Travelling in Great BritainSmiles, Samuel
History
The Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer: With an Introductory History of Roads and Travelling in Great Britain
Smiles, Samuel
Civil engineers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Roads -- Great Britain; Telford, Thomas, 1757-1834
The last structures erected after our engineer's designs were at
Edinburgh and Glasgow: his Dean Bridge at the former place, and his
Jamaica Street Bridge at the latter, being regarded as among his
most successful works. Since his employment as a journeyman mason
at the building of the houses in Princes Street, Edinburgh, the New
Town had spread in all directions. At each visit to it on his way
to or from the Caledonian Canal or the northern harbours, he had
been no less surprised than delighted at the architectural
improvements which he found going forward. A new quarter had risen
up during his lifetime, and had extended northward and westward in
long lines of magnificent buildings of freestone, until in 1829 its
further progress was checked by the deep ravine running along the
back of the New Town, in the bottom of which runs the little Water
of Leith. It was determined to throw a stone bridge across this
stream, and Telford was called upon to supply the design. The point
of crossing the valley was immediately behind Moray Place, which
stands almost upon its verge, the sides being bold, rocky, and
finely wooded. The situation was well adapted for a picturesque
structure, such as Telford was well able to supply. The depth of
the ravine to be spanned involved great height in the piers, the
roadway being 106 feet above the level of the stream. The bridge
was of four arches of 90 feet span each, and its total length 447
feet; the breadth between the parapets for the purposes of the
roadway and footpaths being 39 feet.*[2] It was completed and
opened in December, 1831.
But the most important, as it was the last, of Mr. Telford's stone
bridges was that erected across the Clyde at the Broomielaw,
Glasgow. Little more than fifty years since, the banks of the river
at that place were literally covered with broom--and hence its
name--while the stream was scarcely deep enough to float a
herring-buss. Now, the Broomielaw is a quay frequented by ships of
the largest burden, and bustling with trade and commerce. Skill and
enterprise have deepened the Clyde, dredged away its shoals, built
quays and wharves along its banks, and rendered it one of the
busiest streams in the world,
It has become a great river thoroughfare, worked by steam. On its
waters the first steamboat ever constructed for purposes of traffic
in Europe was launched by Henry Bell in 1812; and the Clyde boats
to this day enjoy the highest prestige.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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