In early June 1893, a Herculean effort by workmen on the railway crossing over Glasgow Road was much talked about in Blantyre.
Despite the busy Caledonian Railway that summer, a huge effort was made to construct a new bridge and keep the trains moving. Between the hours of midnight on Saturday 3rd June 1893 and 1 o’clock in the morning of Monday 5th June work crews demolished the old stone arched bridge over the Glasgow Road which had existed since the late 1840’s. This was at the location of the existing roundabout near where LIDL is now.
A new larger bridge of iron girders was constructed there and then, placed on the stone abutments. If this was not remarkable enough given the limitations of machinery in those days, the rail tracks were relaid and the whole operation done within 2 days!
I can’t find any reason why the small arched bridge was demolished but speculating it could be a few things or even a combination of them. Mining subsidence could have affected the previous stone structure, the small bridge may not have been sufficient for passing horse drive traffic to pass at the same time, or as I greatly suspect, this bridge simply required upgrade for the new tram system to even be a consideration.
The ironwork of the 1890s didn’t have a good shelf life and by the 1930’s, the bridge had to be replaced again, possibly also to accommodate heavier locomotives with longer wagons carrying heavier loads of coal.
These remarkable photos shows the bridge being replaced in the 1931 in the same location.
