From Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki
|From :||Slochd Summit|
|On road :||ex-A9|
|County :||Inverness shire|
|Location Map (geohack)|
|Crossings on the A9|
The bridge across the River Findhorn on the former route of the A9 in Tomatin is a rather dramatic structure. It was built in 1926 by the engineer Sir Owen Williams, with help from the Architect Maxwell Ayrton, as one of a series of bridges along the A9. This is probably the most striking of the bridges they constructed.
The structure replaced a bridge by Thomas Telford which dated back to 1833, however little is known of that bridge. What is known is that the unusual bridge erected in 1926 was designed to solve the problem of the poor ground either side of the river which was ill-suited to the thrusts of a traditional arched bridge.
This led to the use of deep vierendeel girders, encased in concrete, from which the road deck is suspended. The unusual design of the 'windows' in the parapets is down to the shape of the girders within the concrete. Although the bridge has two spans, only the northern span crosses the river, the southern span presumably a flood arch. On both sides at the ends, there are wide semi-hexagonal pedestrian refuges. These are mirrored in the centre, where the solid triangular piers rise from the river bank.
- Findhorn Bridge on David D Miller's site on Owen Williams Bridges
- Other Findhorn Bridges on David D Miller's site