The Forth Rail Bridge

I decided to take a trip out to Queensferry today to cross off one of this iconic structure from my photographic bucket list. It was a lovely day. Blue skies and white clouds. I faffed around for a long time deciding which shot to go for then I toyed with the idea of a mono treatment of my selection, but at the end of the day, I stuck with the colour version. Hope you like it. The final selection set can be found here if you are interested.

Some more information on the bridge.

The Forth Bridge is a cantilever rail bridge opened in 1890 and spans 2,529m across the Firth of Forth on the east coast of Scotland. After 122 years it still has the second longest single span in the world (behind the Quebec Bridge, 1917).

Construction of an earlier bridge, a suspension bridge designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, got as far as the laying of the foundation stone, but was stopped after the collapse of another of his works, the Tay Bridge. The public inquiry into the Tay bridge disaster declared the Tay Bridge "poorly designed, poorly constructed and poorly maintained". Bouch was disgraced, and the project was subsequently taken over by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. who designed a structure that was built by Glasgow based company Sir William Arrol & Co. between 1883 and 1890. Baker and his colleague Allan Stewart received the major credit for design and overseeing building work.

The bridge is, even today, regarded as an engineering marvel. It is 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) in length, and the double track is elevated 46 metres (151 ft) above the water level at high tide. It consists of two main spans of 521.3 metres (1,710 ft), two side spans of 207.3 metres (680 ft), and 15 approach spans of 51.2 metres (168 ft). Each main span comprises two 207.3 metres (680 ft) cantilever arms supporting a central 106.7 metres (350 ft) span truss. The weight of the bridge superstructure was 51,324 tonnes (50,513 long tons), including the 6.5 million rivets used. The bridge also used 18,122 cubic metres (640,000 cu ft) of granite.

The three great four-tower cantilever structures are 100.6 metres (330 ft) tall, each tower resting on a separate granite pier. These were constructed using 21 metres (70 ft) diameter caissons, those for the north cantilever and two on Inchgrvie acting as coffer dams while the remaining two on Inchgarvie and those for the south cantilever, where the river bed was 28 m (91 ft) below high-water level used compressed air to keep water out of the working chamber at the base.

At its peak, approximately 4,600 workers were employed in its construction. Initially, it was recorded that 57 lives were lost; however, after extensive research by local historians, the figure was increased to 63. Eight men were saved from drowning by boats positioned in the river under the working areas. Hundreds of workers were left crippled by serious accidents, and one log book of accidents and sickness had 26,000 entries. In 2005, a project was set up by the Queensferry History Group to establish a memorial to those workers who died during the bridge's construction. In North Queensferry, a decision was also made to set up memorial benches to commemorate those who died during the construction of both the rail and the road bridges, and to seek support for this project from Fife Council.

~ Wikipedia