Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

FORTH AND CLYDE CANAL
at the Fife and Queensferry sides were completed to
their full height in the summer of 1887, less than half
a year after they had been commenced, and those of the
Inchgarvie cantilever reached their full height shortly
after. In the summer of 1888 each of the first bays of
the cantilevers had been fixed; and in the summer of
1889 they had been so far finished that they were only
separated by the gaps left for the connecting girders.
These girders were built out gradually, on the same
principle as the cantilevers, one-half from each side, by
means of cranes gradually advanced for the purpose.
The completion of these girders was successfully accom-
plished on 14th November, 1889, and the bridge was
complete from South to North Queensferry.
The great 12 feet tubes are stiffened by internal dia-
phragms, and provided with man-holes to facilitate in-
spection, painting, and repairs. For the same purpose
they are traversed by internal steel ladders. The tubes
are strengthened as well as held in position by strong
struts and ties, which become lighter towards the ex-
tremity of the cantilever, where the end of the inter-
mediate connecting girder rests on a rocking column,
to allow for expansion and contraction of the bridge
under changes of temperature. By this arrangement
the rails are allowed to slip to and fro, if necessary, as
much as 18 inches on the whole bridge. The rails of
the permanent way, instead of being left a little apart
at their ends, as is usually the case, to allow for expan-
sion in hot weather, are constructed with tapered ends,
which overlap and can slip past one way or the other,
as expansion or contraction may require. Thus the jolt
so often felt in passing a joint of the rails in travelling
will be avoided on the Forth Bridge. There is similar
provision made on the approach viaduct terminal piers
for any movement due to the elasticity of the cantilevers
under lateral wind pressure or by changes of tem-
perature; and the girders of the approach viaduct —
each 336 feet long — rest on a sliding bed-plate, which
surmounts each column, to allow for contraction and
expansion under changes of temperature. A space of
6 inches has been left between each girder for expansion,
though the greatest variation yet noted has been but 2
inches, on one of the hottest days of 1889. The rails
are 120 lbs. per yard, 50 per cent stronger than the
strongest rails ordinarily in use. They rest on teak
sleepers, sunk in a longitudinal trough formed by the
upper members of the permanent way girder. The teak
sleepers rest on a wooden asphalted bed; and as the rails
are 1J inch below the top of the trough, no other guid-
ing rail is needed.
The bridge was formally inaugurated on 4th March,
1890, when the Prince of Wales, by turning the tap of a
hydraulic rivetter, clinched the last bolt, immediately
afterwards declaring the bridge open. At the luncheon
which followed, His Royal Highness intimated that Her
Majesty had been pleased to create Sir John Fowler,
chief engineer of the company, a Baronet; Mr Benjamin
Baker a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael
and St George; and Mr. William Arrol a Knight
Forth and Clyde Canal or Great Canal, The, con-
structed to connect the Firths of Forth and Clyde, was
opened for traffic in 1790. The possibility of making a
short cut through this neck of Scotland was discussed as
early as the reign of Charles II., and the plan was
revived without success in 1723 and 1761. In 1766 some
Glasgow merchants began a subscription of £30, 000 for
a canal 4 feet deep and 24 broad, but parliament refused
to sanction the scheme, owing to the smallness of the sum,
which had been fully subscribed in two days after the
proposal. Another combination was made, and a new sub-
scription for £150,000 set on foot. In 1767 parliament
gave the required permission for the incorporation of
' The Company of Proprietors of the Forth and Clyde
Navigation,' the stock to consist of 1500 shares of £100
each, with liberty to borrow £50,000. Work was begun
in 1768 under the superintendence of Mr. Smeaton, the
first sod being cut by Sir Lawrence Dundas on 10 July.
In July 1775 the canal was completed up to Stocking-
field, at which point a branch to Glasgow was con-
FORTH AND CLYDE CANAL
structed and was carried to Hamilton Hill near that
city, where a basin and storehouses were made. By
this time all the capital and the loan had been spent,
as well as the income from other sources. The revenue
from the part then opened was only £4000, and the pros-
pects were gloomy all round, the shares falling to half
their original price. In 1784 assistance was given by
the Government, who handed £50,000 of the revenue
from the forfeited estates of the Jacobites to the corpora-
tion. This was not a gift, for the Government stipu-
lated that the Crown should draw the ordinary dividend
for that sum. In July 1786 the cutting of the canal
was resumed under the superintendence of Mr Robert
Whitworth, and by July 1790 it was opened from sea
to sea. The Hamilton Hill basin was found too small,
and the large depot at Port Dundas was constructed to
answer the needs of Glasgow. Here a junction was
afterwards effected with the Monkland Canal, and
the two were amalgamated in 1846. Although the
canal was planned to be only 7 feet deep, its depth was
practically 10. Its length was 38| miles — 35 miles
direct between the Forth and Clyde, 2| miles of the
branch to Port Dundas, and a mile of the continuation
to the Monkland Canal. The greatest height of the
canal above the sea is 156 feet, and this is attained by
means of twenty locks on the eastern and nineteen on
the western sides, a difference due to the different water-
level of the two rivers. The locks are each 74 feet long
and 20 broad, with a rise of 8 feet. They admit the
passage of vessels of 68 feet keel, 19 feet beam, and 8J
feet draught of water. The average breadth of the
canal on the surface is 56 feet, and at the bottom 27 feet.
Above thirty bridges span the canal, and it in turn
crosses about forty aqueducts, the largest of which is
that over the Kelvin at Maryhill, consisting of four
arches 83 feet high, which convey the waterway across
a dell 400 feet wide. This work was begun in June
1787, and completed in April 1791, at a cost of £8500.
Water for the canal is supplied from eight reservoirs,
covering a space of 721 acres.
The canal begins, at the E end, about a mile up the
river Carron at Grangemouth. Hence it goes south-
westward to Grahamston and Bainsford, where a basin
was made for the Carron Company's traffic. It then
continues in the same direction to Camelon, and then
trends to the W to Lock 16, where it is joined by
the Union Canal from Edinburgh. Thenee to Wind-
ford Loch, near Castlecary (where it attains its greatest
elevation), it goes in a westerly and south-westerly
direction. As it approaches the Kelvin viaduct the
locks become numerous, and the scenery through which
the canal passes is picturesque and romantic. Re-enter-
ing Dumbartonshire, it proceeds about 5 miles till it
is joined by a junction canal, extending to the Clyde
opposite the mouth of the Cart, formed in 1839 for the
benefit of Paisley, but not now used. For 3J miles the
Forth and Clyde navigation follows the course of the
Clyde in a north-westerly direction, finally joining the
river at Bowling Bay, where a harbour and wharves
were constructed at a cost of £35,000.
Considerable scientific and historical interest attaches
to the Forth and Clyde Canal as the scene of early
experiments in steam navigation. After Mr Patrick
Miller and Mr Symington had, on Dalswinton Loch,
proved the feasibility of using steam on the water, they
came to Edinburgh, and had a boat of 30 tons burden
constructed at Carron. In November 1789 this vessel
was launched on the Forth and Clyde Canal. In presence
of hundreds of people the vessel started, and attained a
speed of 6 miles an hour. Ten years later Lord Dundas
desired Symington to construct a steamer to be used as
a tug on the canal, and in March 1802 the Charlotte
Dundas towed two laden barges of 70 tons burden each
a distance of 19J miles with great ease. In consequence
of the success of this experiment, a proposal was made
to the proprietors to use steam tugs instead of horse
power, but it was rejected on the ground that the wash
from the paddles would destroy the banks of the canal.
In September 1839 another successful experiment in
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