The Forth Bridge: An Incredible 19th Century Achievement

The firth of Forth. Or a bridge. Or something. I don't know, here's a video.

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[richsarchet]

Thank you - now I can show this to my wife who thought perhaps I (a civil engineer) had experienced a stroke as we approached Edinburg in a tour coach and I exclaimed "That's the Forth Bridge" She replied, "Where are the first three?", I said, "No, Forth, it crosses the Firth of Forth" at which point she decided I had lost the power of speech. I was, to a degree impossible for an accounting major (her) to fathom, completely geeking out about a civil engineering wonder which I had read about, but was only beginning to appreciate in real life. This will help her understand.

[cr]

What I love about the Forth Bridge (aside from being generally awesome) is that it's a visual lesson in structures - all the main compression members are tubular (the best shape to resist buckling), all the main tension members are lattice trusses. Almost without exception.
Also, aesthetically, the way the curve of the bottom chord of the cantilevers flows into the horizontal deck of the suspended spans gives it an elegance and a visual unity that many large cantilever bridges lack.

[amaccama]

Remember that these guys didn't have CAD or CFD suites. All done by pencil and slide rule on a drawing board.

[dannork]

If someone told me this bridge was 10 years old, I’d believe them. So I’m having a hard time imagining just how futuristic this bridge must have looked when it was new!

[alloria]

I live less than 15 miles away from this bridge. It is a really impressive structure, and you just can't understand the scale of it unless you see it in real life. Pictures do not do it justice at all.

[nicolek]

You forgot to mention the old saying that a never-ending job was "like painting the Forth Bridge". Nowadays, a longer-lasting coating is used.

[ElicBehexan]

The first time I ever heard of the Forth bridge, being as I live deep in the heart of Texas, was on a mudlarking YouTube video. They really didn't go into the history. THANK YOU!

[viridiscoyote]

The design of the Tay bridge involved cast iron. While very strong, it is not very tough and will encounter brittle failure when overloaded. That, combined with the massive cross-sectional area exposed to wind loading, ultimately caused the bridge to come down. The design was essentially eyeballed.

[twocvbloke]

A feat of engineering for certain, and the best part is, there's a side-project video idea to this, and that's repeatedly painting the bleedin' thing for decades until they recently coated it with a much longer-lasting paint... :D

[thelastpilot]

Near the road bridge there was a hotel and in the grounds was a steel mock up of the construction demonstration. Two or three of you could sit on this while another took your photo. I do not know if it still exists today though.

[Jscribe]

Among my top 5 engineering marvels. A masterpiece, it's so unlike anything before or since it qualifies as a work of art.

[HarryFlashmanVC]

I grew up under the bridge and even today it never ceases to amaze me what an awesome and vast structure it is

[Casemanager]

Still my favourite Civil Engineering project in the U.K
I remember going along the Forth road bridge quite a few times visiting family in North Berwick.

[jamesbe.]

Such a lovely bridge, grace and style, combined to perfection.
Form follows function ....

[VDPEFi]

Images of this bridge always remind me of my dad and his childhood sailing there and our holidays to the Queensferry's, very evocative.

[rlinwa]

I've been to Scotland many times and was delighted to get the opportunity to cross this bridge on one of those visits. As we crossed, I thought of the great scene in Hitchcock's 39 Steps when Mr. Hannay pulls the emergency cord as they cross the bridge and escapes by hiding behind one of those massive steel piers. He later calls out the bridge as a tribute to Scottish engineering, which it truly is.

[jonnylumberjack]

I live in South Queensferry, which is on the South end of the bridges. They are the view from my living room window. They are an amazing sight, especially lit up at night. The middle bridge, the Forth Road Bridge, is by far my least favourite. The old one, as seen here, is a glorious beast. The new bridge, the Queensferry Crossing is rather beautiful in a very different way. The old road bridge is not particularly nice looking and it's a favoured suicide bridge. It's the most depressing thing about living here - any time you hear a helicopter, you know the chance is high that someone has just taken a dive. But the village is amazingly pretty, all in all, I'm very lucky to live here.

[LIKWID]

Its a fascinating bridge and one I've spent many times chilling beside, also been lucky enough to get on top of it which was an experience! Great to see you cover this big beautiful icon of Fife 😁👍

[brett]

Wow! Thats one of the most beautiful bridges ive ever seen!

[cheyennedogsoldiers]

An interesting look at a bridge I've crossed many time, however. I feel on this occasion your writer did Sir Thomas Bouch a bit of an injustice. Yes he was involved in the designs of ferries having introduced the first roll-on roll-off train ferries in the world. However, railway engineering was always his forte. He had a successful career in bridge design having designed several bridges across the north of England and Scotland. I also believe he was also part of the team that developed the Caisson