In 1806 a tunnel was proposed near the Firth of Forth, and in 1818 a bridge was proposed, but both projects were rejected. Almost half a century later, in 1865, an act of Parliament approved the construction of a bridge in the narrow part of the bay, near the village of Queensferry. Eight years later, a consortium of 4 railway companies commissioned Thomas Bauch to design a railway bridge. In turn, Thomas Bauch proposed to build a suspension bridge with two spans 480 m long each. Due to delays in funding, construction was delayed and by 1879 only one support had been installed.
 |
| Forth Bridge Scotland |
On December 28, 1879, there was a catastrophe on the bridge over the Firth of Tay, two years after it opened. As a result of an unusually powerful storm, the central span of the railway bridge collapsed along with the train passing over the bridge, killing 75 people. The commission found flaws in the project of the destroyed bridge and Bauch's project was rejected. Shortly after Thomas Bauch's death, fellow engineers John Fowler and Benjamin Baker proposed a bridge design based on a cantilevered structure. Already in 1881, the Parliament approved this project. Due to a serious incident on the bridge over the Tay, the requirements for the bridge over the Firth of Forth were very high - even with a passing train, there should not be any vibrations on the bridge.
 |
| Forth Bridge Scotland |
The engineers abandoned cast iron and wrought iron and opted for steel. In 1865, the open hearth furnace was invented and the quality of the steel improved so that it was suitable for the construction of this bridge. The British began building the bridge in December 1882, and by the end of 1885, they had completed the installation of the granite piers, eight of them standing in the water. The construction of the foundation was carried out with the help of caissons - huge metal cylinders that plunged to a depth of 27 meters.
Work on the construction of the supports began in 1886. A huge amount of steel was used to build them - 54,860 tons. Steel was produced at two steel mills in Scotland and one in Wales. Six and a half million rivets, weighing 4,267 tons, were made in Glasgow. The construction of the central span was completed by November 1889.
 |
| Forth Bridge Scotland |
On March 4, 1890, the opening ceremony of the railway bridge over the Firth of Forth was held by the Prince of Wales. The ceremony was also attended by Benjamin Baker and Gustave Eiffel. The total cost of this project was £3.2 million. Also, during the construction of the bridge, 57 people died, and eight more were rescued from the boats that were on duty under the bridge during the construction.
Build the bridge
The three main pillars of the bridge, are 100.6 m high, the central pillar is located off Inchgarvey Island, in the middle of a deep bay. Consoles assembled from steel pipes with a diameter of 3.6 m support sleeves 207.3 meters long each. The distance between the supports is 582.8 m, between the extreme bulls - 1630 m. The railway bed is located at a height of 48.2 meters above the water level.