The Bridge to Nowhere

For a while now I’ve been wondering what the story is behind this structure over the M8. I went asking at the council, and the helpful Marco Bardelli got back to me in record time with the following…


Subject: RE: Odd footbridge in Anderston
From: “Bardelli, Marco”

Thanks for your email. The footbridge which is now in the ownership of the Scottish executive has never been open to pedestrians. As far as I am aware it was designed to link up with some never-completed phase of the Anderston Centre and I presume connect to Waterloo Street, as you suggest.

Some time after the motorway was opened a small steel footbridge was built to allow pedestrians to cross North Street near Anderston Cross and even more recently this was superseded by a pelican crossing. All this would have been avoided if only they had finished the footbridge to nowhere…….

It’s always interesting to hear about the urban history. Whether it’s something as mundane as a closed footbridge, to disused railway stations under busy thoroughfares.