The Forth Bridge
Its name is shorthand for a job that never ends, yet the Forth Bridge was finally finished in 1890 and its paint now lasts decades. Here is the truth behind Scotland's red giant.
Published
Quick Facts
- Location
- Over the Firth of Forth, linking South Queensferry near Edinburgh with North Queensferry in Fife
- Opened
- 4 March 1890, by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII)
- Total length
- About 2,467 metres (8,094 feet)
- Main spans
- Two cantilever spans of 521 metres (1,710 feet) each
- Height
- Around 110 metres above high water at the tops of the three great towers
- Designers
- Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker
- Contractor
- Tancred, Arrol & Co, led by William Arrol
- Recognition
- UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015
The bridge that was built to be overbuilt
The Forth Bridge exists partly because another bridge fell down. In December 1879 the Tay Bridge collapsed in a storm with the loss of a train and everyone on board. Work had already begun on a suspension bridge across the Forth, designed by Thomas Bouch, the Tay's engineer. It was abandoned at once. The replacement, by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker, was designed to look and feel unshakeable. Its three double-cantilever towers use huge tubular steel members and a great deal of metal. The message to nervous passengers was clear: this one is not going anywhere. Construction began in 1883 and the bridge opened in March 1890, after the last rivet was driven by the Prince of Wales.
Three men, two chairs and a lesson in cantilevers
How do you explain a cantilever to the public? Baker staged a human model. Two men sat on chairs, arms outstretched and gripping sticks, acting as the cantilever arms. Between them, a hanging weight was a central span. Anchoring bricks stood in for the counterweights at the ends. The man in the middle was Kaichi Watanabe, a Japanese engineer working on the project. He was supported by two assistants, in a demonstration devised by Baker. The photograph, taken in 1887, is still one of the most famous images in engineering. It also shows the principle at work. Each tower balances arms stretching out on both sides, and short suspended girders bridge the gaps between them.
Records, rivets and a very heavy bill
The bridge used around 54,000 tonnes of steel and some 6.5 million rivets. At its peak, thousands of men worked on it, many of them balanced on the rising steelwork high above the firth, with Inchgarvie island supporting the central tower. Its two main spans, at 521 metres each, were the longest in the world. Only the Quebec Bridge beat them, in 1917. It was also the first major bridge in Britain made from steel rather than iron. The human cost was real. The recorded death toll was long given as 57, but later historical research identified 73 construction fatalities. A memorial at South Queensferry remembers the workers.
Why "painting the Forth Bridge" isn't true any more
For generations, painting the Forth Bridge was a byword for a task you finish only to start again. Painters did work on it year-round, and the saying had a solid basis. But the idea was always overstated, and it is out of date now. Between 2002 and 2011 the whole structure was stripped back and recoated in a modern glass-flake epoxy system, designed to last for decades. The red you see is meant to stay put. The myth survives anyway. It is still the phrase people reach for when a job feels endless.
Where to look, and what to look for
The classic view is from South Queensferry, where the bridge towers over the waterfront and the old Hawes Inn, which appears in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. Walk along the shore and the scale of the girders becomes clear. From North Queensferry in Fife you can see the bridge's other end, and its two younger neighbours. Those are the Forth Road Bridge, opened in 1964, and the Queensferry Crossing, opened in 2017. Together they make a three-generation lineup of bridge technology in a single view: cantilever, suspension and cable-stayed. Trains still rumble across the older bridge on the line between Edinburgh and Fife. Look at the girders from below as one passes and you will see why the design was thought so reassuring.
Notable people
- Sir John Fowler
- Sir Benjamin Baker
- William Arrol
- Kaichi Watanabe
- Thomas Bouch
- Edward VII
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