Connel Bridge

Connel Bridge went up between 1898 and 1903 to carry the Ballachulish branch of the Callander and Oban Railway across the mouth of Loch Etive, where the loch narrows to a few hundred feet before meeting the Firth of Lorn. The site gave the engineers a problem. Directly beneath the crossing run the Falls of Lora, tidal rapids that pour over a submerged rock ledge whenever the sea level drops below the loch, and the current made it impossible to build supports in the water. The answer was a cantilever design that could be built out from each bank without touching the channel, engineered by Sir John Wolfe Barry with Henry Marc Brunel, second son of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and constructed by Arrol's Bridge and Roof Company of Glasgow. It took 2,600 tons of steel, cost £43,000, and opened on 20 August 1903 with a clear span of 500 feet, second in Britain only to the Forth Bridge.

The railway carried slate from the Ballachulish quarries, and for its first years the bridge was rail only, with cars loaded onto special wagons to make the crossing. A toll road opened across it just before the First World War, sharing the span with the trains, and the two took turns like a level crossing. The branch line closed in March 1966, the tracks came out, and the bridge has carried the A828 ever since. It remains single lane, controlled by traffic lights at each end, with a 4.2 metre height limit and footpaths on the outside for anyone crossing on foot. By tradition, drivers once threw a penny from the window for luck.

The Falls of Lora below are worth timing a visit around. On a strong ebb tide the outflow builds into standing waves and whirlpools that draw kayakers from a long way off, and on a weak one there is almost nothing to see, so check the tide tables. Film trivia for the road: Donald Sutherland rode a stolen motorbike across the bridge in the 1981 thriller Eye of the Needle.