Alex Burns
DON’T look down… this construction worker stands on a narrow connection over the River Clyde as two parts of the Kingston Bridge are joined together on October 21, 1969.
Work on the bridge began in 1967 after funding was granted as part of the M8 Glasgow inner ring road project, aimed at modernising the city’s transport and improving links with Edinburgh. The bridge was engineered not as one single structure but two parallel crossings: one carrying southbound traffic and one northbound, aiming to cause minimal disruption to the river below. With an £11 million price tag to build, the Kingston Bridge cost almost half of the £20.3 million Clyde Arc – or Squinty Bridge – which was completed in 2006. When the Kingston Bridge was officially opened by the Queen Mother on June 26, 1970, crowds of excited Glaswegians waved flags and banners as their newest landmark was unveiled. But after taking 31,000 vehicles per day in 1970, this figure had risen to around 150,000 vehicles per day by the 1990s. Deterioration soon appeared in the structure as a result of the high volume of traffic, and the bridge had to be closed in 1999 to ‘lift’ it 20mm and prevent dangerous leaning. While not the most visually appealing structure, it has now become an undeniable part of the Glasgow skyline, even gaining a place in the Simple Mind’s music video for Speed Your Love To Me.
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