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Forth Bridge Facts & Worksheets

Forth Bridge, is a railway bridge in Scotland that spans the Firth of Forth, the estuary of the River Forth.

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The Forth Bridge, also known as Forth Rail Bridge, is a railway bridge in Scotland that spans the Firth of Forth, the estuary of the River Forth. It was one of the earliest cantilever bridges and held the world record for the largest span for numerous years. The unique style, materials, and magnitude of the Forth Bridge indicate an essential milestone in bridge design and construction during the era when trains began to dominate long-distance land traffic.

See the fact file below for more information on the Forth Bridge, or you can download our 32-page Forth Bridge worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

  • Before the bridge’s completion, the ferry boat was the only way to cross the Firth. Engineer William Vazie planned a tunnel from Rosyth to Queensferry in 1806. 
  • It was based on geological data from underwater mines at Whitehaven, Cumbria. However, he halted the project due to a lack of funding and support. In 1818, James Anderson created a design for a three-span suspension bridge at the current location.
  • Thomas Bouch built a roll-on/roll-off railway ferry between Granton and Burntisland for the Edinburgh and Northern Railway, which opened in 1850 and was so successful that they ordered another for the Tay. 
  • The North British Railway and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, which would merge in 1865, commissioned Stephenson and Toner to design a bridge across the Forth in the fall of 1863. Still, the commission was granted to Bouch roughly six months later. 
  • It had been impossible to construct a suspension bridge carrying railway traffic. Thomas Bouch, an engineer for the North British Railway (NBR) and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, worked on a single-track girder bridge over the Forth near Charlestown in 1863-1864.
  • The promoters were concerned about the ability to lay foundations in the silty river bottom because borings had gone as deep as 231 feet (70 m) into the mud without finding any rock. 
  • Still, Bouch conducted experiments to show that the silt could hold significant weight. Experiments with weighted caissons in late 1864 produced a pressure of 5 tons/ft2 on the silt, encouraging Bouch to proceed with the concept. 
  • In August 1865, Richard Hodgson, chairman of the NBR, requested that the Company expend GB£18,000 to attempt a different type of foundation because the weighted caissons had failed.
  • Bouch recommended a massive pine platform underneath the piers, 80 by 60 by 7 feet (24.418.32.1m) (the original plan called for a 114 by 80 by 9 feet (34.724.42.7m) platform of green beech), weighted down with 10,000 tonnes of pig iron, sinking the timber platform to the silt level. 
  • The platform was launched on June 14, 1866, after difficulty getting it to slide down the greased planks on which it rested and then tied in the port for six weeks while it was being built. 
  • NBR canceled the bridge project shortly before it sank the platform because the NBR anticipated losing “through traffic” as a result of the merger of the Caledonian Railway with the Scottish North Eastern Railway. 
  • A Committee of Shareholders examining rumors of financial issues discovered that records had been manipulated in September 1866, and the chairman and the whole board resigned by November. 
  • The NBR was practically insolvent by mid-1867 and halted all construction on the Forth and Tay bridges.

Bouch’s proposed bridge 

  • In 1867, the North British Railway took over the Queensferry ferry, and in 1868, it constructed a rail link from Ratho, creating a continuous connection with Fife. 
  • Interest in spanning the Forth grew again, and in 1871, Bouch suggested a strengthened steel suspension bridge on nearly the same route as the current rail bridge. Building on a pier at Inchgarvie began in 1878 following rigorous verification.
  • When the Tay Bridge fell in 1879, people lost faith in Bouch, and the work halted. The Tay Bridge was “badly designed, badly constructed, and badly maintained,” according to the public inquiry into the disaster, which was chaired by Henry Cadogan Rothery, with Bouch being “mainly to blame” for the defects in construction and maintenance and “entirely responsible” for the shortcomings in design.
  • The Board of Trade set a lateral wind limit of 56 lbs/ft2 after the tragedy, which happened in severe gusts for which Bouch had not fully accounted. 
  • On the suggestion of the Astronomer Royal, they reduced Bouch’s 1871 design to 10 lbs/ft2.
  • On January 13, they formally abandoned 1881 Bouch’s design, and Sir John Fowler, W. H. Barlow, and T. E. Harrison, the project’s consultant engineers, were requested to submit bridge options.

THE DESIGNERS AND ENGINEERS OF FORTH BRIDGE

Designer Benjamin Baker

  • Benjamin Baker (1840-1907) began his career as an apprentice in the South Wales Ironworks at 16. 
  • He relocated to London and worked on the building of Victoria Station before joining the business of John Fowler in 1862, becoming a partner in 1875.
  • The two men were heavily involved in developing London’s underground train system, which Fowler had begun in the early 1860s.
  • Baker’s other accomplishments included building the ship that transported Cleopatra’s Needle from Egypt to Britain and serving as a consulting engineer on the Aswan Dam from 1894 to 1902.
  • In 1890, Benjamin Baker was knighted for his work on the Forth Bridge.
  • The classic cantilever principle is depicted in the following illustration.

Consulting Engineer John Fowler

  • Sir John Fowler (1817–1998) was a Victorian railway boom civil engineer. He created several bridges, including the Grosvenor Bridge, which carried the first railway across the Thames, Victoria Station in London, and stations in Glasgow, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Manchester. 
  • The train shed roof at Manchester Central Station was the second-widest unsupported steel arch in the UK, after the roof at St Pancras Station.
  • However, some of his most notable work was as a pioneering engineer on the numerous lines that comprised the London Underground.
  • He also worked on engineering and railway projects in Algeria, Egypt, Australia, Belgium, and the United States.
  • In 1865, he became the Institution of Civil Engineers’ youngest president and was instrumental in establishing engineering education.
  • By the time he began work on the Forth Bridge, he had delegated much of the design work to Benjamin Baker, but he remained the senior partner throughout the construction. He was appointed a baronet upon the bridge’s completion in 1890.

Contractor William Arrol

  • William Arrol (1839-1913) embodied the traditional Victorian self-made man, rising from poor beginnings to prominence and knighthood through hard effort and innovation.
  • He began working in a cotton mill at nine and became a blacksmith’s apprentice at fourteen.
  • In 1863, he joined a Glasgow firm of builders and bridge builders, and five years later, he was able to start his own business with his life savings of £85.
  • In 1872, he created his Dalmarnock Works and completed his first significant bridge three years later, carrying the North British Railway across the Clyde at Bothwell.
  • He was awarded the contract to construct Bouch’s proposed suspension bridge across the Forth. He was awarded the contract for the successful Baker and Fowler design when they canceled that project of Bouch.
  • He also became the contractor of the new Tay Rail Bridge. A typical week would see him spend Monday morning at his work in Dalmarnock. 
  • He would then spend two days at the Forth, two days to the Tay, and one back again at the Dalmarnock before getting on the train to London on Saturday and sometimes Sunday to consult with Fowler and Baker.
  • In 1872, he created his Dalmarnock Works and completed his first significant bridge three years later, carrying the North British Railway across the Clyde at Bothwell.
  • He was awarded the contract to construct Bouch’s proposed suspension bridge across the Forth. He was awarded the contract for the successful Baker and Fowler design when they canceled that project of Bouch.
  • He also became the contractor of the new Tay Rail Bridge. A typical week would see him spend Monday morning at his work in Dalmarnock. 
  • He would then spend two days at the Forth, two days to the Tay, and one back again at the Dalmarnock before getting on the train to London on Saturday and sometimes Sunday to consult with Fowler and Baker.

CONSTRUCTION

  • The Forth Bridge was the first significant building in Britain to be built of steel (rather than iron), which was only feasible due to advancements in steel manufacturing.
  • After the introduction of the Bessemer process in 1855, large amounts of steel were accessible, but its strength was uncertain.
  • They could only obtain consistent quality steel once the developed Siemens-Martin process was introduced in 1875. Two steelworks in Scotland and one in Wales provided the steel needed.
  • The bridge’s cantilever design was not novel; they had used it for centuries in the east, but the magnitude of the Forth Bridge was unparalleled, as were many technological obstacles.
  • With the Tay Bridge disaster still fresh in everyone’s mind, the designers and engineers had to consider calculations for wind pressures and the effects of temperature changes. However, they still created what was, at the time, the world’s longest cantilever bridge span and is still the second-longest single-span cantilever.
  • Although work on the Forth Bridge’s foundations began in February 1883, work on the site had started in 1882 with the erection of steel fabrication operations on the river’s south bank.
  • At its peak, the construction employed around 4,600 persons. It is widely assumed that 57 people perished during the bridge’s construction, but a recent study by local historians suggests that 63 is a more realistic figure. 
  • The number of injuries is unknown. Although one accident and sickness record book had 26,000 entries, they believed hundreds of employees to have been paralyzed in significant incidents.
  • However, it took efforts to ensure the men’s well-being. Eight guys were saved from drowning by safety boats. Men working on the foundations were given boots and waterproofs, while they provided those working on the superstructure heavy woolen coats, overalls, and waterproof shoes.
  • On-site shelters and heated dining rooms were available, and both employees and employers paid a sickness and accident fund. Wages on the project were also higher than the national average for all worker classifications.
  • During the seven-year construction period, work was done from about 100 feet below the sea surface to more than 300 feet above the surface.
  • They devoted the first three years to constructing the bridge’s granite piers. 
  • They accomplished it by lowering caissons – large wrought iron cylinders – to the seabed and pumping them out, allowing workers to work on the Forth’s floor, laying foundations, and erecting piers. 
  • It was hazardous and uncomfortable work, and in two of the caissons, the depth was such that water had to be kept out by filling the working chamber at the bottom with compressed air, with the men passing through airlocks to reach their destination.
  • Work on the superstructure began in 1886. The rising building became a wonder as it extended from the piers, first vertically when the towers were finished and then outwards as the cantilevers spread out to meet one another, apparently defying gravity.
  • The bridge was finished in December 1889 and was load-tested the following month. Two trains, each with three engines and 50 coal cars (weighing a total of 1,880 tons – double the design weight of the bridge), were pushed carefully out onto the bridge, pausing regularly for measurements.
  • The first complete crossing of the bridge occurred in February, with a train carrying the chairpersons of the several railway companies involved. 
  • The Forth railway bridge, known simply as The Forth Bridge, was officially inaugurated on March 4, 1890, by the Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward VII.

RESTORATION AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Over the next ten years, portions of the bridge were covered by substantial scaffold access systems with carefully prepared screening to prevent sandblasting and paint particles from damaging or polluting the environment.
  • They announced an extensive restoration project for the Forth Bridge in 2001. 
  • After removing the old paint, any steelwork that needed to be fixed was mended before placing the new paint.
  • After thoroughly cleaning the steel framework, paint was sprayed in three protective coats over an area of 230,000 square meters, both by airless spray and by hand in especially difficult-to-access spots.
  • Because of the processes and paint employed during the repair, the bridge will not need to be repainted for at least 20 years, putting an end to the notion that ‘painting the Forth Bridge’ is a never-ending operation.
  • First Minister Alex Salmond inaugurated twin monuments in North and South Queensferry in 2012.
  • The occasion commemorated the completion of a 10-year renovation on the Forth Rail Bridge.
  • Thousands of “Briggers” have toiled on the bridge’s construction, maintenance, and restoration during its 129-year history.
  • The inscription on the stone foundation of the 7ft bronze statues reads: “To the Briggers, past and present, who created, renovated, and continue to preserve this famous edifice.”

DESIGN INFORMATION

  • The Forth Bridge includes three double cantilevers with two 1700ft suspended spans connecting them, which were the world’s most extensive bridge spans at the time. 
  • As the Admiralty specifies, the rail level must be 150 feet (46 meters) above high water. Each tower features four steel tubes 12ft (3.7m) in diameter and rises 361ft (110m) above high water. 
  • Their foundations continue 89 feet into the river bed, bringing the total height from the foundations to the tops of the towers to 137 meters. 
  • The bridge’s length, including the approach viaducts, is 2,467 meters. The main structure itself is 1,630 meters long from portal to portal.
  • Baker and Fowler’s bridge was the first significant structure in Britain to be built of steel, with 53,000 tonnes of the material used. 
  • The bridge’s design was meticulously balanced, with a maximum thermal expansion allowance of 1612 inches (420mm) across the 5350ft (1630m) steel core framework. It included 6.5 million rivets, totaling 4,200 tons in weight. 
  • It was built to resist 56 pounds per square foot wind force.
  • The foundations for the massive towers were created on-site and buried using compressed air. The bridge cost £3 million to build and employed 4,600 persons at its peak.

Forth Bridge, Edinburgh Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about the Forth Bridge across 32 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Forth Bridge, is a railway bridge in Scotland that spans the Firth of Forth, the estuary of the River Forth.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Forth Bridge, Edinburgh Facts
  2. Fact or Not?
  3. Word Exercise
  4. Renown Men
  5. I learned…
  6. Bouch’s Proposal
  7. Factors for Construction
  8. Perfect Engineering
  9. Bridges of Edinburgh
  10. Crossing
  11. Construct my Bridge

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Forth Bridge?

The Forth Bridge is a railway bridge that spans across the Firth of Forth, connecting the towns of South Queensferry and North Queensferry in Scotland. It was opened in 1890 and was considered an engineering marvel at the time.

How long is the Forth Bridge?

The Forth Bridge is 8,296 feet (2,529 meters) long.

What is the Forth Bridge made of?

The Forth Bridge is made of steel and is considered a cantilever bridge. It is composed of three main sections: the cantilever arms, the anchorage towers and the connecting trusses.

How was the Forth Bridge built?

The Forth Bridge was built using a combination of manual labor and new technologies such as the steam hammer and the steel rivet. The construction took place over a period of 8 years, from 1883 to 1890, and involved the work of more than 4,000 men.

Why is the Forth Bridge important?

The Forth Bridge was an engineering marvel of its time and was considered a symbol of Scotland’s industrial and technological progress. It was one of the first large-scale steel structures and was the longest cantilever bridge in the world when it was built. The bridge also played a key role in the transportation of goods and people across the Firth of Forth.

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