Weekly Photo Challenge – Bridge – Forth Rail Bridge

In response to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge this week, I’m submitting four photos of Scotland’s most famous and iconic landmarks, the Forth Rail Bridge. This amazing structure, a cantilever railway bridge, was opened on the 4th March, 1890, after a period of 8 years worth of construction.

Forth Rail Bridge from Newhalls Road, South Queensferry

For nearly 30 years after it first opened, it was the worlds longest cantilever bridge, spanning the Firth of Forth with a length of just over 1.5 miles. The bridge was the first ever major construction to use steel, (its contemporary, the Eiffel Tower, was built of wrought iron), and it took nearly 60,000 tons of the metal to construct it.

Forth Rail Bridge – southern end

 

Forth Rail Bridge at night from South Queensferrry