FORTH BRIDGE, SCOTLAND. :-
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles west of Edinburgh City Centre. It is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland, and is a UNESCO World Heritage
When a task takes so long that by the time you finish it, you have to start all over again, it’s called ‘painting the Forth Bridge’!.
The Forth railway bridge spans the estuary of the Forth river in Scotland. In actually took ten years to complete the most recent paint job on the distinctive red 125-years-old bridge (2001-2011).
When it opened in 1890, it was the world’s first multi span cantilever bridge made entirely of steel. It is still one of the longest at 2529 m. It crosses the Firth of forth (‘firth’ is a narrow sea inlet in Scots) and connects the outskirts of Edinburgh and Fife.
The bridge took 8 years to construct at the cost of $3.2 million. It weighs 53,000 tonnes. More than 4500 men laboured over it, 71 of them dying during the task.
It was designed by two English engineers, John Fowler and Benjamin Baker. The bridge carries 200 trains per day. In 1964, it was joined on the firth by the Forth Road bridge. A third bridge is set to open in late 2016.