The Forth Bridge - AS SEEN IN EXPLORE

            The Forth Bridge is a masterpiece of railway civil engineering, an iconic landmark, a milestone in the development of railways, the first major structure in Britain to be made of steel and its completion created a single continuous railway line from London to Aberdeen.

The first rail crossing here was made in 1850 when the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway started the world’s first ‘train ferry’ - designed by Thomas Bouch - between Granton and Burntisland. In August 1873 Bouch was instructed by the North British Railway to build a suspension bridge across the Firth of Forth. Construction began in 1878 but when Bouch’s original Tay Bridge collapsed during a storm in December 1879, work immediately stopped and never restarted.
Designs for a new bridge to cross the Forth between South and North Queensferry were invited by the newly formed Forth Bridge Railway Company which had been formed jointly by the North British, the Midland, the North Eastern and Great Northern railways, The design had to conform to specifications from both the admiralty who stipulated that the Forth remained a navigable channel, and the Board of Trade who stipulated, following the Tay bridge collapse, that the bridge must be rigid, stiff and capable of carrying the heaviest freight trains.

John Fowler and Benjamin Baker were engaged to develop their cantilevered design for the bridge while the contract for the construction was let to Sir William Arrol & Co with work on the bridge starting in 1883.

Construction of the 1.6 mile long bridge took 6 years, 55,000 tonnes of steel, 173000ft³ of concrete, 50t of cement, 640,000ft³, of granite, 8 million rivets and the lives of 73 of the 4600 men who worked on the site. The bridge was built in two phases. The first, from 1882 to 1885, involved enabling works, including sinking the caissons and constructing the foundations and piers to support the superstructure. The superstructure, which weighs about 51,324t, was built from 1886 to 1890.
The Forth Bridge has three double cantilevers, 330ft tall & 680ft long, with two 1700ft suspended sections between them. As required by the Admiralty, the rail level is 151ft above the river. Each of the towers has four steel tubes, 12ft in diameter, which reach to a height of 361ft above the water. The foundations extend 89ft below the bridge into the river bed, making the total height from foundations to the top of the towers 450ft.  Each tower rests on separate granite pier constructed by 70 ft diameter caissons which used compressed air to keep water out of the working chamber at the base

In recent years a £130m refurbishment programme has been undertaken that has seen the whole bridge repaired and repainted.  The paintwork was sand blasted back to bare metal and any damaged steelwork repaired before the new paint was applied. The techniques and epoxy based paint used means that the bridge will not require a full repaint for at least 20 years, finally putting an end to the myth that “painting the Forth Bridge” is a never ending task!

Taken on: December 28, 2014

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Sets appears in: • Forth Bridges • As Seen in Explore

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Camera: Panasonic DMC-G2, f/6.3, 1/250 sec, 14mm (=28mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-G2
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	14mm (35mm equivalent: 28mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Landscape
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Light Source:	Unknown (Unknown)
Scene Capture Type:	Landscape
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	GIMP 2.8.0
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