North Rotunda

The North Rotunda sits as a circular red sandstone tower topped by a distinctive copper dome along the River Clyde. It was built in eighteen ninety-six as one of two identical buildings designed to anchor a tunnel for horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians beneath the river. When engineer Alexander Simpson finished the massive iron shafts, workers discovered the riverbed was so soft they had to use pressurized air to prevent collapse. Many laborers suffered from decompression sickness, which locals at the time called the bends.