The Forth Road Bridge, South Queensferry

Category

Library Item

Item no

33528

Title

The Forth Road Bridge, South Queensferry

Artist / maker

MacLean, Kevin

Date

2014

Type

Digital image

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

In September 1958 construction began on the Forth Road Bridge. It took 6 years to complete the structure which includes 39,000 tonnes of steel and 115,000 cubic metres of concrete. The total cost was £19.5 million. The huge cables which support the bridge are made up of 11,618 individual wires spun together tightly to create a cable strong enough to hold the deck of the bridge in place. The bridge is 2,517 metres long, making it the longest suspension bridge outside of the US and the fourth longest in the world at the time of its completion. Its iconic towers extend 150m above water level and can be seen for miles around.

In its first year the bridge carried 2.5 million vehicles. The number of people using the bridge has grown year on year far beyond the projections of the 1950s. Due to this increase in traffic and the consequences of this for the structural integrity of the bridge it was decided that a second road crossing, The Queensferry Crossing, would be built. The Queensferry crossing will accommodate trade and private traffic while the existing bridge will be used as a public transport link. The new bridge is expected to open to traffic in 2016.

You can find out more about the history of crossing the Firth of Forth from the The Forth Bridges website.

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Related subjects

Landscape > Water > Rivers and streams

Places > Edinburgh areas > South Queensferry

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Transport > Infrastructure > Bridges

Transport > Infrastructure > Road bridges

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