page_title: Caledonian Railway Bridge
section_title: First bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Caledonian Railway Bridge / First bridge
caption_attribution_description: English: First Caledonian Railway Bridge, taken before the opening of the present bridge in 1905.
context_page_description: The Caledonian Railway Bridge is a bridge crossing the River Clyde at Broomielaw in Scotland. It is adjacent to Glasgow Central station.
context_section_description: The first bridge was built between 1876–1878 for the Caledonian Railway Company, and opened on 1 August 1879 It was engineered by Blyth and Cunningham and built by Sir William Arrol & Co. It consisted of wrought iron lattice girders linked at the top by a light arched lattice girder, and carried on a cast iron arch (visible in the photograph) over twin piers in the river. The piers are formed of cast iron cylinders sunk to bedrock and filled with concrete, and then extended above the river with Dalbeattie granite.
  The approach span over Clyde Place to the south was 60 feet (18 m) long, and over Broomielaw to the north of the river was 90 feet (27 m) long. The navigation spans were 164 feet (50 m), 184 feet (56 m) and 152 feet (46 m) long. The bridge carried four tracks into the new Glasgow Central station.
  In 1966–1967, the girders and tracks were removed, leaving the pillars in the water, after resignalling meant it was no longer needed.
caption: The first bridge
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