Dean's Brae Bridge

The Dean Bridge spans the Water of Leith with four massive stone arches, sitting over a hundred feet above the riverbed. Thomas Telford designed this structure in eighteen thirty-one to carry road traffic into Edinburgh from the northwest. Before it opened, travelers had to navigate the steep, treacherous path down into the village and back up the other side. A local merchant once spent three days trying to haul a grain cart through that muddy gorge before the bridge finally leveled the crossing.