From the Archives: Flood put Inverness in state of emergency By Contributor Published: 19:30, 19 January 2021 Get the Inverness Courier sent to your inbox every week and swipe through an exact replica of the day's newspaper The bridge which ultimately replaced the damaged 17th century crossing, but was itself demolished and replaced by the modern crossing in 1961. ON the morning of January 25, 1849, after heavy rain and a sudden thaw, the inhabitants of Inverness awoke to find that the River Ness had burst its banks, writes the Highland Archive Centre's Jennifer Johnstone. Large parts of the town were flooded and the Old Stone Bridge, between Bridge Street and Young Street, had been swept away. Built in 1685, by public subscription, this bridge not only linked the two parts of the town but also carried the main road to the north and north west.