Between the site of the paper mill in the north and the aqueduct carrying the canal in the south there are (or were) seven bridges of which six are shown on this 1955 map:
From north to south they are:
1. Dalsholm (Mill) Bridge, red circle
2. Small railway bridge serving the paper mill, orange circle
3. ‘Big railway bridge’, yellow circle
4. Modern Cowal Road bridge – not yet in existence
5. Small railway bridge serving the gasworks, green circle
6. Skeathorn Road / Bantaskin Street bridge, blue circle
7. Kelvin Aqueduct, carrying the canal, purple circle
The main online evidence is from maps and photographs.
Dalsholm Mill Bridge
I suspect this is the oldest of the eight, but cannot find a date. Roy’s Military Map of 1750 does not show a bridge (and given the purpose of the map, it would surely have included it if it was there). It is on the 1857 map:
I’ve already used this photo in my post on the paper mill but it is so interesting (and easy to reproduce today) I am going to use it again:
The photo is copyright of Historic Environment Scotland and is the work of Professor John Hume.
Small railway bridge
The paper mill was served by a railway line with sidings at the mill itself. A bridge was built to link this to Maryhill Station (now Maryhill Park Station). It was built between 1857 and 1890 (the date of the map below):
The ‘big railway bridge’
This is still standing today. The main source here is excellent railscot website (link) where it is named the Maryhill Viaduct. However, the trove website (Historic Environment Scotland) calls it the Kelvin Viaduct, link.
If you look again at the two maps above, you might notice the viaduct seems to have got wider over time – this is not a cartographic error. A railway bridge was built in 1857 (for the Glasgow, Dunbarton and Helensburgh Railway) so in the first map above it was absolutely brand new.
In 1874 another railway company, the Stobcross Railway, then built what has been described as a second bridge immediately to the south.
While duplicating an existing bridge would be a crazy thing to do, I cannot see evidence the second bridge was operated as a separate entity. Dawsholm gasworks (a major ‘importer’ of coal and ‘exporter’ of chemical by-products) were being built in the early 1870s so it seems more plausible that it was actually a widening of the existing bridge from carrying two tracks to four to cope with the increased traffic. After all, as Railscot points out, the companies’ railway lines came together in a junction between the bridge and Maryhill (Park) Station so the effort seems more collaborative than competitive.
I think this photo (from 1977) supports my view:
© Copyright: HES (Papers of Professor John R Hume, economic and industrial historian, Glasgow, Scotland)
This view is from the Maryhill bank of the river, north of the bridge so the bridge (or half of a bridge) nearest the camera is the older part (and is still in use today).
Railscot also notes the first bridge may have been designed with nine arches but during construction it partially collapsed and was built with the seven arches we see today.
© Copyright: HES (Aerofilms Collection)
This 1939 photo shows the railway viaduct (bottom right) in the context of the gas and chemical works, showing why a two-track bridge (as originally built) would not have been enough.
This photo from 1970 might not show the bridge at its best, but the changing industrial context is of interest.
© Copyright: HES (Papers of Professor John R Hume, economic and industrial historian, Glasgow, Scotland)
It was taken from the north end of Lochgilp Street, on the east bank of the river looking north-west. The building in the right foreground is described in the caption as a ‘coachbuilders’ (scrapyard?). The white tank on the left is the edge of the last version of the gasworks, the 1960s venture using naphtha. The tallest chimney is (I think) the incinerator at the council refuse depot (quite pale maybe as a result of smoke, centre-left). The chimneys just above the bridge are the old chemical works. I suspect the chimney on the right is at the paper mill.
The modern bridge at Cowal Road
The realignment of the main thoroughfare from Maryhill Road to Dalsholm Road presumably took place in the 1970s, but I can find nothing about it online. The design of the bridge and the vegetation on either side of the road mean you would barely know you were crossing the Kelvin at all.
The small railway bridge serving the gasworks
This can be seen in context on the 1890 map:
This bridge can be seen in Fleming’s sketch below and in the 1939 photo above, in the bottom left, which shows it required one pillar to cross the river.
The bridge carrying Skaethorn Road to Bantaskin Street
This bridge is shown on the 1857 map with Bantaskin Street then being called Bridge Street:
Note that the map is of Lanarkshire, the river being the western boundary – there is an equivalent map for Dunbartonshire (although it was almost entirely rural at this time.
Ian Fleming’s sketch of the area (dating around 1930?) shows the bridge in the foreground with the houses on Skaethorn Road immediately to the left (if you find this disorientating, we are standing on the canal path with our backs to Cleveden looking back to Maryhill Locks and Maryhill Road):
This photo is from 2015 and shows the canal aqueduct in the middle but also the Skaethorn Road/Bantaskin Street bridge, boarded off at each end. Note also the piers for another small railway bridge south of the canal aqueduct.
© Crown Copyright: HES
The 1939 photo above also shows this bridge, in the bottom corner on the extreme left.
The canal aqueduct
Of course, this is the best known and most documented bridge of the seven covered in this post – here is a link to the Wikipedia page, for example (click here).
Photo credit: Maryhill Burgh Halls blog (link).
The aqueduct with Dawsholm Gasworks on the right and the gasholders at Temple on the left. Building started in 1787 and finished in 1790. There are four arches with the river passing under the ones on the Cleveden side, with a railway previously having used the Maryhill side.