Louis Harper

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Louis Harper was a civil engineer from the north-east of Scotland who designed a number of suspension footbridges towards the end of the 19th century.

His father John Harper came from Turriff in Aberdeenshire, and worked as a fencer in Edinburgh and Glasgow before starting the family firm in Aberdeen in 1856, which became Harpers Ltd in 1885. John Harper patented a mechanism for straining wire, used both to make fences and later also for the cables of bridges. His son John took charge of the business until 1887, while his second son Louis served an apprenticeship with Jenkins & Mar, Civil Engineers.

Louis set up his own firm in 1889, later collaborating with the contractors James Abernethy & Co. In addition to his bridge projects, he assisted Aberdeen Council in surveying their town water scheme. He became an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1893, resigning in 1921.^[1]

The firm's early bridges included suspension bridges at Aboyne, spanning 300 feet, and at Shocklach in Cheshire, both built in 1871. Neither bridge exists today. The early bridges had wooden towers, although these were replaced in later bridges by structural steel or cast iron members.

[edit] Later bridges

Monymusk, 1879 over the River Don, Aberdeenshire, 107 feet span
Burnhervie, circa 1880, near Kemnay, collapsed 1979
Birkhall, 1880, Royal Deeside, 60 feet span
Cromdale, 1881 over the River Spey, collapsed and replaced by road bridge in 1922
Nairn, 1887, first bridge by Louis Harper
Crathorne Hall, 1888, 55 feet span, collapsed 1930 in flood
Bandon, County Cork, 1890, 120 feet span
Larbert, 1893 over the River Carron, 90 feet span
Feugh, 1893 near Banchory
Trentham, Staffordshire, 1893, 70 feet span, replaced in 1930s
Grimsby, 1894, three bridges
Sellack Boat, 1895, near Ross-on-Wye (Pictures at Brantacan)
Doveridge, 1898, replaced by a bridge by David Rowell & Co. (Picture at Bridgemeister)
Keswick, Cumbria, 1898 over River Greta, demolished 1979
Narva, Estonia, circa 1898, 260 feet span
Newquay, 1900, about 100 feet span (Picture at Bridgemeister)
Chovar Gorge, Nepal, 1903

A number of other bridges are proposed as having been designed by Louis Harper at the Harper Bridges website, although in the absence of clear documentary evidence, they are not listed above.