Swinger

No, nothing to do with a certain Scottish Socialist Party MP and his extreme social Mancunian exploits. No, that's all too bizarre for this family friendly show.

This Swinger is the 'old' Kincardine Bridge, Europe's largest swing bridge when it opened in 1936, but now relegated to the sidelines next to its super speedy but charmless two year old sibling The Clackmannanshire Bridge just down river. In its hey-day it could swing all 1600 tonnes of it's central span out over this jetty to allow river traffic up to Alloa and beyond or down the Firth of Forth, out past Edinburgh and on to the North Sea. Despite living around this area since the late 1960s and having crossed the bridge thousands of times I'd never ever seen the bridge operate. It swung open and closed for the last time in 1988 and I kind of regret not taking the time out to see this at least.

I didn't hang around long to take this picture today; the biting wind blowing down the river cancelled out any heat from the rapidly setting sun as it set fire to the tops of the Ochil Hills in the distance. Bloody Baltic it was.

Looking for some details on the bridge I found a website that's re-published an old article from 1937 with some great old pictures of the bridge being built and in action. Made me late blipping tonight reading through it, but it's pretty impressive stuff. If you're interested, it's over here, and there's a video of it operating here.