Howden Bridge carries the B7015 over the River Almond near the centre of Livingston. It is a historic two arch stone bridge dating back to 1764, which seems very out of place amongst the Concrete and Steel of the new town. The two arches are not identical, with the southern arch being much wider and shallower than the northern one. They are separated by a wide pier in the river bed with a substatntial triangular cutwater. There is a string line above the arches, roughly at road level, with a similar shallow projection above the arches and for the coping stones. The bridge is built of roughly dressed stone laid in courses. Larger blocks are used for the lower courses, but smaller stones are used higher up on the abutments. The change between these two types of stonework almost suggests that the roadway was originally humped and was later raised to provide a more level crossing, although there is still a slight hump over the larger arch.
The roadway across the bridge is a narrow S2, with token pavements on either side. It is unusual for such a wide bridge to have been built so early, but the bridge formed part of the old coach road west from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and as such may have been built wide enough for two coaches to pass.
