Building record MAB23926 - BRIDGE OF DON

Bridge built 1827-30 by engineers John Smith and Thomas Telford.

Bridge built 1827-30 by engineers John Smith and Thomas Telford. The bridge carries the A92 public road (King Street) over the River Don on the northern outskirts of Aberdeen. The bridge is not to be confused with the Brig o' Balgownie (NJ90NW0022), which was often refered to as the Bridge of Don prior to the construction of the current Bridge of Don. In 1819, an application by a number of heritors and burgesses was made to build a new bridge over the River Don in addition to the older Brig o' Balgownie. They wanted it to connect with King Street in order to deal with the increased traffic. The funds that were to be used to construct the new bridge would come out of the existing Brig o' Balgownie funds with an estimate of £14,000 to complete the task. In 1824, they began the project and adopted the plans of the new bridge drawn up by John Gibb, engineer, and funds were appropriated from the Brig o' Balgownie funds in order to complete the project. However, an Act of Parliament had not been sought and the Town Council spent much of 1824 obtaining the act; in July 1825, an Act of Parliament was granted to construct the new bridge. In September 1826, plans of the bridge by John Gibb were submitted to Thomas Telford, civil engineer, for his consideration and advice. The design of the bridge was done by John Smith, architect. The original design had 5 semi- circular arches, each with an 86 foot span, with roadway 26 foot wide within the parapets and 42 feet above sea level. It was later revised by Telford to take into account the problems with the foundation. It became a seven span bridge, of dressed stone with five segmental arches and rounded cutwaters extending up to form semi-hexagonal pedestrian refuges. The building of the bridge was begun later that year (1826) and in February 1829, there were some problems with completing the work. The foundations of the piers or pillars were reported as sinking into the River Don at such a rate as to make the bridge unsound. Thomas Telford was consulted and he outlined a solution to the problems of the sinking pillars by rebuilding the foundations of each. By October 1829, Gibb had reported to the Council that the new bridge was all but complete-the exception being the south pillar which continued to sink regardless of the alterations that were made previously. Telford suggested that the entire pillar be remade, new foundations laid, and if it did not sink, to continue with finishing the bridge. In November 1830, Barrack, superintendent of the bridge work, reported that the bridge, despite its early foundation problems, was complete. Barrack also reported that, although the operations to complete the bridge were expensive and lengthy, it was to the credit of its contractor, John Gibb, that the bridge was sound and stable. The bridge was then opened for traffic. In 1833, the bridge was further examined by Gibb and reported to the Council that it was safe. At the time, Gibb was owed £2000 for completing the project, including one year's interest. The total cost of the project was listed as £17, 330 but no objection was raised to the over-expenditure of the estimated cost. The Town Council was initially given permission to charge a toll on the bridge but this was never realised. Smith's masonry was duplicated when the bridge was widened in 1958-60 to deal with heavier traffic. A number of worked stones, hexagonal in plan, on the river bank on the west side of the south end were reported in May 2025.

Period Notes
Listed 24/11/1972.

AAS/GR/96/CT106-8, 170, AAS/GR/96/CT106-8, 170 (Ground Photograph). SAB36651.

ABERDEEN CITY LIBRARIES, 2005, ABERDEEN'S BRIDGES OVER THE DEE AND DON (Bibliographic reference). SAB8338.

May 7 2025 , PUB-GR-25-05-030, 031, PUB-GR-25-05-030, 031 (Ground Photograph). SAB37097.

Record last edited

May 9 2025 9:50AM