Aerial view from the South West showing a cargo ship passing underneath the bridge.

Description Aerial view from the South West showing a cargo ship passing underneath the bridge.

Date 1982

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number SC 1679275

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of WL 2982

Scope and Content Aerial view of Forth Bridge, Edinburgh and Fife The Forth Bridge was built between 1883 and 1890 to designs by engineers Sir John Fowler (1817-98) and Sir Benjamin Baker (1840-1907) with Sir William Arrol (1839-1913) and Joseph Phillips as contractors. This massive steel railway viaduct features three double cantilevers connected by girders with a total span of 2.5 km. This aerial view shows the bridge with a cargo vessel passing below the central section. Each of the double cantilevers rests on granite foundations which were sunk by means of 'caissons', huge steel drums which were sunk down to the river bed and filled with compressed air to enable men to dig away the foundation levels for each cantilever tower under the water. The engineer Thomas Bouch lost the contract for the Forth Bridge after his Tay Bridge collapsed with great loss of life in 1879. Early passengers were so nervous about the safety of rail travel over water that they would throw coins from carriages into the water as offerings to ensure a safe passage. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1679275

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap