River Clyde, the Victim of Industrial Revolution
River Clyde is one of the longest rivers in Scotland. Precisely, this river is the second-longest after River Tay. This condition also becomes the main reason, why River Clyde becomes important river for industry in United Kingdom and Scotland. During Industrial Revolution, this river was the center of the trading transportation. There are many ports that were built along the riverside. With its strategic position in Industrial Revolution, many people use it. Unfortunately, this river doesn’t have condition which suitable with this need. Therefore, people started to make changes on this river.
The first attempt to change the river structure was happened in 1768. The shallow river of River Clyde makes it unable to use for larger ship. On the other hand, those kinds of ships were needed to transport more product and material. Plus, River Clyde is connected to important place and area in UK and Scotland, such as international port, such as Port Glasgow that connect this country with Americas. Therefore, this change was made to boost the trade, especially the tobacco and cotton trading from other country. Therefore, John Golborne recommended for changing the structure of this river. They made it to be much more narrowed than before. Plus, they also built rubble jetties to add more area where these ships can pass the river without problem. This method also was chosen to solve the two shallow channels that were located near Dumbarton, which is caused by Dumbuck shoal.
The first person that finds and reports this matter was James Watt in 1769. Because of his report, they decided to build jetty around Longhaugh Point. The jetties construction was made for block the water from Southern channel, which will make the main channel has more water. This way they can add more depth on the main channel, which means larger ship can pass through it without problem with the shallow river problem before.
But, once again, this effort didn’t produce result like what they want. Therefore, in 1773, they built Lang Dyke, a series of training wall on Dumbuck shoal. This method was quite successful to block water to flow into Southern channel. The effort to make River Clyde deeper was continued in late 18th and early 19th century. They build more jetties in the same areas around Dumbuck and Broomielaw quay. Because of this method, they were able to get the result immediately.
And, they didn’t stop with just that. They keep doing the deepening process on River Clyde until mid 19th century. However, the engineer found another problem that makes their project can’t be continued. This problem was known as Elderslie Rock. These geological changes also become the inspiration for many artists, like John Atkinson Grimshaw, James Kay and many more. Even though the project can be considered as failed project, we can called it as one of the proofs how strong the effect of Industrial Revolutions. People even are willing to change the nature just to increase the efficiency of their business and industry. And River Clyde has become the victim for that needs.
Are you interested to know more about River Clyde, You can find out more about River Clyde by reading more facts about it. I’m sure that will give you more knowledge about this river.