University of Glasgow Library Blog

View from below the Kingston Bridge on the south side
View driving over the Kingston bridge from the south side
View of the Kingston bridge from the north side

50 years ago today the Kingston Bridge was opened by Her Majesty the Queen Mother in 1970. The bridge over the River Clyde connects the north and south of Glasgow between the Anderston and Tradeston/Kingston areas.

Aerial photo view of the Kingston Bridge from above.
This aerial view of the bridge has been created using Digimap Aerial, available to UofG staff and students. You can find out more about the database here.

Between the 1940s and the 1960s it was becoming clear that vehicle use was increasing dramatically with no signs of slowing. Glasgow was becoming gridlocked and a solution was needed.

Image shows chart of household car availability every 10 years between 1951 and 2010. The number of people without access to a car is as follows: 1951 14%, 1961 31%, 1971 52%, 1981 60%, 1989/91 67%, 1998/2000 72%, and 2010 75%.
In 1951 only 14% of the population had access to a household car. Twenty years later in 1971 more than half the population had access to a household car.1

At the time, motorways running through cities appeared a modern and progressive concept, and the Bruce Report of the 1940s suggested a vast traffic improvement…

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The Bridgehunter’s Chronicles is a column produced by the author that focuses on historic bridges both in the USA as well as in Europe that tourists should visit before they are replaced or removed. Each bridge is profiled with the goal that people are aware of its existence and can take action regarding saving them. The Chronicles also provides a tour of some of the regions in both of the aforementioned areas, where there is a dense number of historic bridges that exist, with a goal of encouraging tourists to visit these areas and encourage others to add the place to their travel itineraries. And finally, the Chronicles provides readers with news stories of historic bridge preservation efforts, events involving historic bridge (preservation)- such as the Historic Bridge Conference, bridge symposiums, etc., discussion about historic bridges, preservation and education about them, and literary work on historic bridges that were released to the public and the public should read about.

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