Filed under: Photographs, Scottish History | Tags: Falkirk Wheel, Forth & Clyde Canal, Union Canal
Opening in 1773, the Forth & Clyde canal linked the River Clyde in the west of Scotland to the River Forth in the east.
Some 50 years later in 1822 the Union canal opened linking Edinburgh to the coalfields at Falkirk but also joining the Forth & Clyde canal by means of a series of 11 locks. Even though the locks took the best part of a day to get through, it was still a relatively quick way to transport bulky goods between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Following the coming of the railways, canal use went out of fashion and over the years, stretches of the two canals were filled in for road and housing development. The 11 locks were dismantled in 1933.
A resurgence of interest in canals for leisure purposes in the 1990s gave rise to a project to re-open the two canals – the ‘Millenium Link’ project – to be funded by several local authorities and other interested parties, with help from the Millenium Commission and the National Lottery.
Work started on the 84.5 million pound project in 1998. In place of the 11 locks a boat lift was commissioned – the Falkirk Wheel. Two rotating gondolas, each containing 300 tonnes of water, can accommodate four canal barges. The wheel only uses around 1.5kWh of energy to turn (roughly the same as boiling eight kettles of water) because the weight of the gondola going down helps to lift the other one up.
Opened by the Queen in 2002, the Falkirk Wheel is an engineering masterpiece.
Filed under: Photographs, Scottish History | Tags: Edinburgh, Leamington Lift Bridge, Union Canal
This bridge was installed around 1906 to allow vehicles and people to cross the Union Canal at Fountainbridge in Edinburgh, replacing an older bridge built in 1869. In 1922, parts of the canal in central Edinburgh were filled in and the bridge was moved to its present site at Leamington Wharf.
By the 1960s the Leamington Lift Bridge had fallen out of use but it was refurbished when the canal was restored as part of the ‘Millenium Link’ project for the year 2000.
It was designed by Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle for the canal owners, the North British Railway, and is the only surviving example of an electrical lifting bridge on the Union Canal.
The deck is raised between gantries on each side of the road so that boats can pass underneath.
Scots Roots 