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Summary

Description

Edward L J Blyth (Edinburgh), engineer, 1881. 5-span segmental arched bridge over River Dee. Rough-faced grey granite with ashlar to piers and parapet. Rounded cutwaters with advanced piers with round arched panels above. Coped panelled parapet with decorative cast iron lamp stands to each pier.

Statement of Special Interest

Victoria Bridge was a major factor in allowing the increasingly busy industrial 19th century Aberdeen to expand to the South. The bridge is an elegant 5-span structure in granite with good detailing and elegant cast-iron lamp stands.

The natural course of the Southern section of the River Dee estuary lies slightly to the North of its present course. Aberdeen was an increasingly expanding city with its dockside trade and fishing in the 19th century. The original Harbour was deemed to be too small for this expansion and the idea was mooted to divert the course of the River Dee slightly to the South. This would have the effect of enlarging the Harbour area and create a further dock and quayside, which was necessary to accommodate the expanding trade. The River Dee was therefore diverted in 1868 to its present course and the Albert Quay created. The Council were initially keen to build a bridge to Torry on the Southern side, over this newly diverted River, as this would open up a new area for expansion and allow the building of more industrial and residential accommodation. After a great deal of argument, this proposal foundered, but after a ferry accident in 1876, when 32 people died, the idea was taken up again and this bridge was built in 1881. A plaque on the bridge notes the ferry disaster.

References from previous List Description: J H Blyth, Signed Plans for Victoria Bridge, Aberdeen Art Gallery, AB/89/1. Post Office Directory, Plan of the City of Aberdeen, (1800). F H Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, Vol 1 (1886) p12. T Brotherson & D J Withrington (eds) The City and its Works: Aspects of Aberdeen's History since 1874, (1996) p8. NMRS photographs.

References

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