 In order to access this, open up the slopes of Calton Hill to development and shorten the road to East Lothian and England, he presented the plan to build Regent Bridge to the City magistrates on 1 March 1814 with a projected cost of about £20,000 and backed up by a feasibility study by the engineer Robert Stevenson.Although complicated (part of the old Calton burial ground had to be moved, a fifty foot valley had to be bridged, solid rock had to be blasted and buildings at the east end of Princes Street had to be demolished) the project was accepted and Waterloo Place on top of the bridge was designed by Archibald Elliot.Construction under the direction of Robert Stevenson began in 1816 and the bridge was finished in 1819.