Dryburgh Bridge

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Dryburgh Bridge is a pedestrian bridge over the Tweed in Scotland that connects the village of St Boswells in the Scottish Borders with the village of Dryburgh near Dryburgh Abbey . Today's bridge is the third bridge at this point.

First bridge (1817)

The first Dryburgh Bridge was built in 1817 by the brothers John and William Smith on behalf of the Earl of Buchan to replace the long-standing ferry . It had a wingspan of 79 m (260 ft ) and was 1.22 (4 ft) wide. It was approved by its owner for pedestrians and guided horses .

The bridge, which was built in less than five months, was a chain bridge in the style of the later cable-stayed bridges with chain rods stretched diagonally from the four pylons to the bridge deck, which caused considerable vibrations from the start. This amused three young people who managed to amplify the vibrations until one of the longest bars on their eye broke. In a violent storm in January 1818, the vibrations became so strong that the longest chain link broke again, the bridge deck was set in violent horizontal and vertical vibrations and blown down and the bridge was destroyed. Investigations showed that the forged eyes had held out, but the only curved and thimbled eyes at the other end of the rods were broken.

The collapse of the bridge caused a considerable sensation among experts. For a long time they refrained from further attempts with inclined chains.

Second bridge (1818)

A little later, a new building was erected in less than three months, now as a chain suspension bridge with vertical hangers. This time all the eyes of the chain bars were forged. The bridge deck, which overlooks the river at a height of more than 5 m, was stiffened by a strong half-timbered railing and provided with inclined guy chains to the opposite bank, which should prevent the girder from moving in strong winds. Robert Stevenson said after their visit that this tensioning had no great effect. The bridge deck, which consisted of two longitudinal beams, was supported on both sides by two chains made of 3 m long rods. The pylons had a height of 8.5 m above the bridge deck. They were stiffened by crossbars at the tips.

In 1838 this bridge was also destroyed by a heavy storm.

Dryburgh Bridge (1872)

Third Bridge (1872)

In 1872, the Dryburgh Bridge was rebuilt in the form of a somewhat wider, wrought-iron suspension bridge with double suspension cables and an iron bridge deck, which is stiffened by iron truss railings on the sides and covered with a wooden walkway.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Robert Stevenson: Description of Bridges of Suspension . In The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal , edited by Sir David Brewster, Robert Jameson. Volume 5, No. 10, Edinburgh 1821. p. 237
  2. ↑ a b Bridges of the River Tweed on the St Boswells Scotland website
  3. ↑ Dryburgh, Suspension Bridge ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Scotlands Places  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk
  4. ↑ Entry on Dryburgh Bridge  in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)

Coordinates: 55 ° 34 ′ 50.4 "  N , 2 ° 39 ′ 15.2"  W.