Craigellachie Bridge

The Craigellachie Bridge is a cast iron arch bridge at Craigellachie near Aberlour in Moray (Scotland). It was designed by the famous engineer Thomas Telford and built in 1812-1814. The bridge has a single opening of about 46 m span and was in her time so far revolutionary, as they used an extremely slender arch that you would not have in traditional masonry construction can produce. The iron parts have been produced in the Plas Kynaston Foundry, Cefn Mawr in Ruabon in the north east of Wales by William Hazledine, the bridges had cast a number of Telford. The parts were then transported from the foundry through the Ellesmere Canal to the sea and on the sea route to Speymouth, where they were loaded on wagons and taken to the site. Studies in the 1960s revealed that the cast iron has an unusually high tensile strength. This has probably been requested by Telford because, unlike gewöhnlichern stone arch bridges occur at some points of the arch under live load tensile stresses.

At each end of the bridge are two 15 m high pseudo- medieval towers with loopholes and parapet.

The bridge was in regular use until 1963 and was then closed for a major overhaul. The railings and the bars in the spandrels were replaced by authentic new parts. In addition, a limitation of the load at 14 tons were disposed of. This and dodge by the fact that the road to the bridge immediately north makes a sharp bend around a rock wall, the bridge was unsuitable for modern road vehicles. Nevertheless she wore to traffic until 1972 on the Spey, then it was replaced by one built by Sir William Arrol & Co. reinforced concrete bridge, which was opened in 1970 and runs the A941 today. Telford's bridge is still in good condition and usable for pedestrians and cyclists. It stands as a Category A monument is listed and has been added by the American Society of Civil Engineers in the List of International Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks in 2007.

Swell

• Nelson, Gillian. Highland Bridges. Aberdeen University Press. In 1990. ISBN 0-08-037744-0
• Paxton, Roland. Thomas Telford's Cast- Iron Bridges, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 160, Special Issue One. ISSN 0965-089 -X