Bridge of Oich
The Bridge of Oich is a 44 meter long chain bridge , the pillars of which are made of stone, over the river Oich . It is located south of Fort Augustus in the village of Aberchalder in the Scottish Highlands .
In 1849, a flood that came through the Great Glen and passed the Caledonian Canal destroyed the stone bridge over the Oich. It took five years to rebuild the bridge before it could be opened to traffic.
The design of the iron bridge was created by James Dredge . For this purpose, used the former Brauer , of the engineering umschulte, its patented Taper principle ( "taper principle"). To cross the river, you needed a single bridge spanning the river. With that a stone bridge was eliminated. Dredge's advanced design differed from a normal chain bridge because its links were made thinner.
The bridge gave the Highland economy a boost. In the past, food was transported over poor dirt roads with the help of pack animals. It was not until the construction of roads and the Caledonian Canal by Thomas Telford that traffic and thus the economy advanced. Now there was a stagecoach service three times a week. The bridge was used by wool and horse traders. Likewise, the first tourists came and, every autumn, the great flocks of cattle who moved south. The larger barges used the canal to travel north of Scotland. Road traffic on the A82 has been running over a new bridge about 100 m south of the old suspension bridge since 1932 .
The bridge is now in the care of Historic Scotland and is a listed building (Category A ).
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Coordinates: 57 ° 5 ′ 36.2 " N , 4 ° 44 ′ 43.2" W.