Alexander James Adie (1808-1879)
Alexander James Adie (1808-1879), railway engineer
1808 Born the son of Alexander James Adie
Studied at the High School in Edinburgh and then Edinburgh University before training as a civil engineer under James Jardine.
1836 Appointed Resident Engineer on the Bolton and Preston Railway.
Designed an impressive skew railway bridge to cross the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. See Bridge 74A, Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Some sources give the date of construction as 1838, but 1841 seems more likely. Various sources state that Adie designed the bridge using the logarithmic method of Edward Sang. The courses of masonry certainly follow the principle laid down by Sang, but Adie makes no mention of Sang in his 1842 Paper to the I.C.E.[1]
1863 Appointed Manager of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway.
In February 1846 he followed in his father's footsteps and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
1879 April 3rd. Died at his house, Rockville near Linlithgow,and is buried on the south side of St Michael's Church in Linlithgow.