What happened to Glasgow’s bridges to nowhere? Strange half-finished M8 walkways explained

The construction of Glasgow’s M8 was a long, arduous, and confusing process that took decades and left the city with a few odd artefacts from its construction.

It holds the title of the busiest motorway in Scotland, and stretches from Glasgow all the way through the central belt to Edinburgh.

Glasgow’s motorway differs from most other UK motorways in that it directly cuts through the city’s centre - rather than bypassing it like most other major roads in other British cities.

In this way, the central section of the M8 in Glasgow is more similar to a US interstate than a UK motorway - with most of the section elevated above ground level with a concrete viaduct.

The M8 was constructed piece-by-piece in several stages across the central belt, beginning in 1965 - with construction on the inner city Glasgow section happening between 1968 and 1972.

The inner city ring road was first developed as an idea in a scheme published after the Second World War in the ‘Bruce Report’ - which detailed a series of initiatives to regenerate the city.

Bruce’s scheme evolved into what would become the Glasgow Inner Ring Road, a motorway ‘box’ which would encircle the city centre, connected to the Renfrew Bypass at its south western corner, and the Monkland Motorway towards Edinburgh at its north eastern corner.

Together, these three sections of motorway make up the present day M8 - with the final section between Newhouse and Bailleston only finishing construction in 2017.

The construction planned out over decades of infrastructure development left a few, very visible civil engineering blunders in the form of incomplete structures around the motorway.

Glaswegians dubbed the incomplete structures ‘bridges to nowhere’ due to the long winding footpaths abruptly ending in a 40 foot drop over the motorway.

Construction of the Anderston ring road was scaled back when funding ran out, leaving two pedestrian footbridges to stop a hundred metres or so from a junction.

The odd half-finished structures remained for over 40 years - puzzling visitors, inspiring art students, and embarrassing local councillors.

At its time the construction of the M8 was already a controversial topic - having carved a swathe through Charing Cross and Anderston - destroying many buildings like the iconic Grand Hotel.

In total there were three bridges to nowhere along the M8 - the most famous being the Anderston footbridge due to its length spanning over the motorway.

It was finally completed in 2013 - over 40 years after construction began - by cycling charity Sustrans using money from the Big Lottery Fund.

Another bridge at Charing Cross - which wasn’t actually bridge but a building, it just resembled a bridge as it lay unfinished for 30 years - was developed into what we now know as ‘Tay House’, a very garish salmon pink office building in the mid 90s.

The final bridge to nowhere was made on the M8 not during the initial construction in the 60s, but in 2008 when the Albany Hotel was demolished.

It stuck around for nine years - being removed in 2017 when the now empty land it terminated over was redeveloped into an office complex called Bothwell Exchange.

As it stands, all of the bridges over Glasgow’s M8 are going somewhere - but as we saw in the late noughties all it takes is one ill-advised demolition or construction project for another bridge going nowhere to pop up somewhere.