Forth Road Bridge and Queensferry Crossing

As the skeleton of the new Forth bridge springs up from the waters of the firth this exhibition looks forward to the new structure and also back at the construction of the bridge it is being built to replace, the original Forth Road Bridge.

The Forth Road Bridge is a category 'A' listed structure and vital transport artery for the country. It was one of the most ambitious civil engineering projects in Scottish history and has cemented itself as an iconic part of the city's skyline.

Prior to the building of the Forth Road Bridge there had been a ferry crossing at the site for 800 years. The crossing was founded in the 11th century in the name of Queen Margaret, wife of King Malcolm to carry pilgrims from the capital to religious Dunfermline Abbey and St Andrews. This 'Queen's Ferry' eventually gave its name to the settlements on either side of the water which grew up around the ferry port, North Queensferry on the Fife shore and South Queensferry on the Lothian shore. This service continued for centuries until it became clear that the volume of passengers using the crossing was too much for the ferry to take. As early as 1740 there was discussion of building a road crossing over the Forth. Throughout the 18th century many plans for a bridge spanning the water were presented but none were considered viable. In the year 1811 a staggering 83,000 people, 44,000 animals and 6,000 vehicles and carriages used the crossing. In 1821 a steam ferry was introduced but, as the steam boats could not accommodate vehicles, this measure did little to curb the crowding and congestion of the ferries.

It was in September 1958 that construction would 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 and cost £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. The grand opening ceremony took place on September 4th 1964. The bridge was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II and her husband The Duke of Edinburgh in front of a crowd of 16,000 invited guests and 50,000 citizens drawn by the spectacle. In the first 3.5 hours of operation 20,000 half crowns were exchanged at the tolbooths for passage over the new bridge.

In its first year the Forth Road Bridge carried 2.5 million vehicles and opened up a vital transport route between the capital and north-eastern Scotland. The number of vehicles and passengers using the bridge has grown year on year far beyond the projections of the engineers in the 50s. In 2013 22,929,495 vehicles used the bridge. It was found in 2005 that there was corrosion of the major wires on the bridge due to the increased number of vehicles using the route and the changes in regulations of modern haulage vehicles. Measures were taken to stall the decomposition of the steel including dehumidifying the cables and replacing steel beams under the bridge bed. After this discovery it was decided that a second road crossing, The Queensferry Crossing, would be built to accommodate trade and private traffic while the existing bridge will be used exclusively for public transport and buses.

The new bridge is expected to open to traffic in 2016. We're grateful to Transport Scotland for sharing dramatic pictures of the new bridge's construction with us.

You can find out more about the history of crossing the Firth of Forth from the Forth Road Bridge website and you can explore and make digital scrapbooks of material and memories of the Forth bridges at the Forth Bridges Scrapbook.