KELVIN WAY BRIDGE.

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Kelvin Way Bridge is one of the least remarkable river crossings in Glasgow - but it makes up for it with its magnificent sculptures at each corner.
Spanning the River Kelvin close to the vehicular entrance to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, work started on this bridge in 1913.
Designed by Alex B McDonald, the city engineer, it was completed the folowing year, as were the four sets of bronze sculptures by Paul Raphael Montford.
His work was not erected onto the four corners of the bridge until 1920.
Each ssculpture has two figures mounted high on pedestals, grouped around a sandstone pillar.
The figures represent Peace and War (a woman and a warrior), Philosophy and Inspiration (a bearded sage and a female musician), Navigation and Shipbuilding (a figure holding a tiller and a woman with a model ship), and Commerce and Industry (a female with purse and a man with a large hammer).
During the Second World War a bomb was dropped on the bridge but it was not seriously damaged.
Ironically, the statue that was most affected was the one in commemoration of War. It was repaired by Estonian sculptor Benno Schotz.
He had studied his craft at night-school while working in the Clydebank shipyards during the day. He died in 1984.

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