Bridges

There are 18 routes across the river in the Clyde Waterfront area including bridges, ferries and tunnels. From the St Andrew's suspension bridge in the east to the Erskine Bridge in the west, the choice of crossings includes 4 footbridges, a weir and 3 railway bridges.

The  Clyde Arc is the newest bridge across the Clyde. It opened in 2006 as part of the regeneration process. A new footbridge between Broomielaw and Tradeston will be completed by summer 2008.

This theme looks at where and why bridges are built, how bridges are built and at other ways of crossing rivers.

Lesson/project ideas (search all lesson/project ideas)

Title	Short description	Related curricular areas	Age group
A bridge design company challenge	Working in small groups, children put learning into a real life context as a bridge design company.	Expressive Arts, Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technologies	Upper Primary
The design process - bridges of the future	Imaginative and creative approach to the design process, applying knowledge of structures to create a futuristic bridge design.	Expressive Arts, Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technologies	Upper Primary
Structures - design and forces	Explore basics of bridge design engineering focusing on the relationship between bridge type and forces.	Expressive Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technologies	Upper Primary
Clyde bridges - young tourist information leaflet	Research, design and produce an information leaflet on the Clyde Bridges for tourists and visitors.	Expressive Arts, Languages, Social Studies, Technologies	Upper Primary
Clyde bridges - cards & postcards	Create ‘impressionist’ images of the Clyde bridges and waterfront to be used in greetings cards or postcards.	Expressive Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technologies	Upper Primary
Structures - bridge building	An enterprising approach to structures - young people apply knowledge and understanding in a project to design a bridge.	Expressive Arts, Science, Social Studies, Technologies	Lower Secondary
Bridges art project	A themed approach to a personal art project. Using symbolism of bridges, cross curricular links can be established.	Expressive Arts, Social Studies, Technologies	Lower Secondary
History of Clyde bridges	A timeline investigation of the building and construction of the Clyde’s bridges which produces a display of work for school use and a presentation of work for parents’ evenings.	Expressive Arts, Languages, Social Studies, Technologies	Upper Primary, Lower Secondary
Clyde Arc bridge ICT project	Create a PowerPoint display on Glasgow’s newest bridge, the Clyde Arc. Find out more about bridges across Europe using the e-twinning programme.	Expressive Arts, Languages, Science, Social Studies, Technologies	Upper Primary, Lower Secondary
Report on the opening of Clyde bridges	To use the opening of a new bridge on the Clyde as the theme for developing report writing skills and news articles.	Expressive Arts, Languages, Social Studies, Technologies	Upper Primary, Lower Secondary