Times Past: How Glasgow's Clyde Tunnel changed the city forever

Glasgow Times

12-07-2025

The Glasgow Herald article from that day captures the sense of public excitement generated by the opening of the road tunnel, with drivers and passengers "marvelling at the steepness of the dip under the Clyde and the climb out on the other side."
Two days earlier, on the 3rd of July 1963, hundreds of spectators had crowded behind the crash barriers on Govan Road to catch a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at the official opening ceremony.
West Tunnel under construction looking north, showing lighting, trunking and exhaust duct cladding (1963) (Image: Supplied) The effects of the new tunnel on Glasgow's traffic were felt immediately.
On King George V Bridge, at the time the most westerly of Glasgow's bridges and the site of regular snarl-ups, traffic flowed freely.
The long queues of cars that could usually be seen waiting for the Govan ferry at rush hour had disappeared – "they must all be using the tunnel today," commented ferryman Kenneth McKenzie in the Evening Times the day after the opening of the tunnel.
West Tunnel, general view looking north (1963) (Image: Supplied) The opening of the Clyde Tunnel had been a long time in the making.
Glasgow Corporation had been eager to improve Glasgow's cross-river transport infrastructure since the end of WW2.
The importance of the stretch of the Clyde westwards from Govan and Finnieston to Glasgow's shipbuilding industry rendered a bridge across that section of the river undesirable.
The boom of the motor car and the resultant congestion in the city, however, required a solution.
A pamphlet created to mark the opening of the tunnel, held at Glasgow City Archives, outlines the difficulty faced by those attempting to cross the river by car prior to the construction of the tunnel: "motor traffic has had to rely on vehicular ferries to carry vehicles between the opposite banks or make a detour into the heart of Glasgow and cross the river by one of the four city bridges."
In 1948, Glasgow Corporation acquired the powers to construct a road tunnel under the Clyde, between Whiteinch and Linthouse.
Financial troubles meant nearly ten years would pass before Lord Provost Andrew Hood would sink a silver-plated spade into the soil at Linthouse to mark the beginning of the construction of the tunnel.
Building the Clyde Tunnel was gruelling work for the tunnellers underground.
Nicknamed the 'Tunnel Tigers', the cohort included many emigrant workers from County Donegal.
The 'Tigers' spent eight hours a day digging tonnes upon tonnes of stone and silt from beneath the river.
Beyond being physically exhausting, the work could also be dangerous.
There were numerous cases of workers suffering from 'the bends' during and after their work on the Clyde Tunnel, and two workers, Leslie Bone and Thomas Roache, died from decompression sickness.
When the first tunnel was completed in 1963, it was hailed as a feat of civil engineering.
At time of opening, the Clyde Tunnel's 6% gradient made it the steepest road tunnel in the world – a fact which won't be surprising to anyone who has puffed their way out of the tunnel's cycle lane on their bike.
The initial estimate was that 9000 cars a day would use the Clyde Tunnel, but within a year of opening that figure had shot up to 22000.
While the Clyde Tunnel proved popular with motorists, some certainly felt its disadvantages.
The neighbourhoods of Whiteinch and Linthouse were considerably altered by the construction of the tunnel, with the demolition of 250 tenements, a church, several bowling greens and a number of allotments.
The residents of these areas found the peace of their neighbourhoods disturbed by the traffic of the large new roads.
The Herald reports how "people accustomed to quiet nights found the late-night and early-morning traffic interrupted their sleep," while children who used to play freely in the street found themselves hemmed in by crash barriers.
The Clyde Tunnel is a landmark not only of Glasgow's road network, but of the country as a whole.
In the 62 years since its construction, it remains Scotland's only road tunnel, and now carries around 25 million motorists, cyclists and pedestrians a year.