As far as red bridges are concerned, it is a shame that the Golden Gate Bridge is so much more widely known than the Forth Bridge. The latter is no less of a marvel of engineering and quite a nice sight as well, considering it is entirely made of steel and serves the rather mundane purpose of allowing trains to cross the Firth of Forth. Admittedly, trains safely crossing bridges must have been much more of a “wow”-moment in the late 19th century than it is today.
At the time of the opening in 1890, the Forth Bridge was one of only a few multi-span cantilever bridges and held the record of having the longest cantilever spans in the world for nearly 30 years. Its longest span measures 521 meters, and the total length of the bridge comes to 2,467 meters. That is quite a distance of water to cover, if you ask me.
Sadly, the top spot for longest cantilever bridge was snatched by Quebec Bridge in Canada, which was opened in 1919 and looks eerily similar. The Forth Bridge remains the second longest to this day, though.
The Forth Bridge was designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, and construction took seven years. I can never decide whether that is a lot or whether it isnʼt quite fast, after all. Taking into account the insane amounts of steel required and more than 6 million rivets used to make everything hold together, seven years do not seem quite so long. In any case, this bridge was voted Scotland’s greatest man-made wonder in a 2016 survey by VisitScotland.
Forth Bridge
Its World Heritage status was awarded the year prior to the survey, in 2015, due to the creative genius of its “distinctive industrial aesthetic”.
The official description continues as follows:
“The Forth Bridge is an extraordinary and impressive milestone in the evolution of bridge design and construction during the period when railways came to dominate long-distance land travel, innovative in its concept, its use of mild steel, and its enormous scale.”
From: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1485/
Forth Bridge Southern Approach
Visiting the Forth Bridge is easily done from Edinburgh, even on public transport. There is a 5-mile “Forth Bridges Trail” with good views of all three of the bridges across the Firth of Forth – the other two being the Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing.
Queensferry Crossing and Forth Road Bridge
Unfortunately, I did not have a lot of time and only spent a little while pottering about in South Queensferry. The views I managed to snatch of the Forth Bridge impressed me deeply, though, and I think I will return with some more time on my hands on my next visit to Scotland. Hopefully, Iʼll manage to take less blurry photos, then…