Replacing rivets on the Forth Rail Bridge

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

34223

Title

Replacing rivets on the Forth Rail Bridge

Description

A black and white photograph of three men working on the Forth Rail Bridge. The man in the foreground is using a rivet gun to fire rivets into the steel girders. The man on the left in the background is heating up rivets so that they can be fired more easily, and the man on the right is John Paton, bridge foreman.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1945

Type

Photograph

Location

Queensferry Museum

The Forth Rail Bridge was constructed between 1883 and 1890 and was designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. Construction began only a few years after the Tay Rail Bridge disaster in which over 70 people were killed. In order to allay the fears of the public in the wake of this catastrophe the structure of this cantilever bridge was designed to be both visually impressive and enormously strong.

The bridge stretches 1.5 miles across the Firth of Forth between South and North Queensferry and its three towers are over 100m high. The creation of this monumental structure came at a heavy price. In addition to the high economic cost of roughly £2.5 million, more than 60 men lost their lives whilst working on the bridge. A memorial to those who died has been erected in South Queensferry. The bridge was opened on the 4th of March 1890 by the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.

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Related subjects

Manufacturing Industry > Manufacturing equipment > Tools

People > Industry > Construction workers

Places > Edinburgh areas > South Queensferry

Places > Edinburgh Landmarks > Forth Rail Bridge

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh