CHAP.V. COLDSTREAM BRIDGE. 59 



had, up to that time, been constructed in the kingdom ; 

 the engineer having to encounter rocks and quicksands ; 

 the canal in some places passing over deep rivers, in others 

 along embankments more than twenty feet high. It 

 crosses many roads and rivulets, and two rivers, the 

 Luggie and the Kelvin, the bridge over the latter being 

 275 feet in length and 68 feet in height. The depth of 

 the canal was 8 feet, and vessels of 1 9 feet beam and 

 68 feet keel were capable of easily passing along the 

 navigation between the east and west coasts. Although 

 the total cost of the undertaking was estimated at only 

 about 150,000^., and the important uses of the navigation 

 were unquestionable, the greatest difficulty was experi- 

 enced in raising the requisite funds ; and long before the 

 canal could be opened to the Clyde, the works came to a 

 complete stand-still. Twenty years passed before the 

 money could be raised to finish them, and this was only 

 effected by the aid of a public grant. At length the 

 canal was opened in 1790, having been finished by Mr. 

 Whitworth (one of Brindley's pupils), and the opening 

 of the communication between the eastern and western 

 seas was celebrated with great rejoicings, the Chairman 

 of the Canal Committee symbolically performing the feat 

 by launching a hogshead of water brought from the 

 Forth into the Clyde. 



Mr. Smeaton was next employed to build a bridge 

 across the Tweed at Coldstream. He furnished several 

 designs, and that eventually selected by the trustees was 

 executed under his superintendence. It consisted of five 

 principal arches of the segment of a circle, the centre one 

 being 60 feet 8 inches from pier to pier ; the two next, 

 60 feet 5 inches ; and the two land or side arches, 58 feet. 

 The design presents no features worthy of special notice, 

 nor was any unusual difficulty experienced in getting in 

 the foundations. The piers were founded on piles driven 

 deep into the bottom of the river ; and the building, 

 where beneath the level of the stream, was carried on, as 



