Story of Glasgow firm which built Edinburgh's famous bridge

Glasgow City Archives at the Mitchell Library is a rich source for shipbuilding and engineering heritage.

Among the most significant is the archive of Sir William Arrol & Co, which won fame all over the world through the incredible ability of its founder.

William Arrol (1839-1913) was responsible for some amazing engineering works in Scotland, across Britain and around the world over his lengthy career – including the Forth Bridge.

Forth Bridge Works (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

Born in Houston in Renfrewshire, he and his family moved to Paisley in 1850, and William worked at Coats’ Paisley Cotton Thread Manufacturing making bobbins.

When he was 14, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Paisley. He attended night school classes and purchased books on engineering. After his apprenticeship he  was a journeyman blacksmith but work was not easy to find and in 1858, then 19, he took a job at a factory.

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He then became a foreman at Laidlaw's Engineering Works in Glasgow, where he was responsible for his first bridges: the Greenock and Ayrshire Railway at Greenock in 1865 and the Pier in Brighton, in 1886. 

Two years later he set up with a friend as boiler and girder makers. The partnership was dissolved after heavy losses.

On his own again, William Arrol began in a small way, making boilers. girders and general construction work. It was not an easy task. He had limited means to allow him to form an entirely new business. But the company grew rapidly and in 1871 he moved to larger premises at the Dalmarnock Works.

(Image: Getty Images)

It was these much larger premises which provided him with the opportunities to take on bigger works, including railway bridges.

In response to the increased scale and importance of the new contracts, Arrol had to resolve the problem of the greater mass of material requiring to be managed. He designed and manufactured special drilling and riveting plant, enabling the material to be manipulated by more improved and economic means.

Early successes included the bridge over the Clyde at Bothwell for the Caledonian Railway Company, and the structural element of the Central Station at Carlisle.

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He also built both the first (1876-1878) and the second (1899–1905) and current Caledonian Railway Bridge over the Clyde to carry this railway to Central Station. These early works brought Arrol’s name before the engineering world.

It was the second bridge to Central Station which led to the design of special tools and appliances which became indispensable in his subsequent large works. He introduced the hydraulic riveting machine, which became known as Arrol’s Patent.

This did much to revolutionise riveting in the principal bridge building and shipbuilding yards across Great Britain.

Although these works were ground-breaking. it was his later work which made his reputation and brought him honour and fame, in particular the Forth and Tay Bridges. Mr Arrol’s input is to be detected in every stage of these great projects.

At a banquet following the opening of the Forth Bridge, which was attended by many men of note in the railway world, the Prince of Wales announced that the Queen had conferred a knighthood upon William Arrol for such impressive abilities exhibited through the delivery of these great projects.

After the Forth Bridge, the Arrol company switched to England. It built all the main viaducts and many of the swing bridges for the Manchester Ship Canal Company. At about the same time, they undertook the construction of the steelwork for the Tower Bridge across the Thames in London.

The Arrol Gantry at Harland and Wolff (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

In addition to bridge-building, the company operated a large general business in mechanical engineering and structural work.

It was largely responsible for the manufacture of the riveting machines, patented by Sir William. These were adopted in the majority of the leading shipbuilding and iron centres throughout Great Britain, and other countries around the world.

Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast hired Arrol to construct a large gantry for the construction of its three planned Olympic class ocean liners, including the ill-fated Titanic. 

The Arrol Gantry, one of the largest of its time, is now exhibited at Titanic Museum.