The Forth Bridge, Scotland - a modern wonder of the world built in 1890

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went for a walk along the shore at South Queensferry near Edinburgh, where the Forth Bridge crosses from Lothian to Fife in Scotland.

The bridge spans the Firth of Forth - a large inlet from the North Sea, and makes the crossing from Edinburgh to Fife a lot quicker.

Its a huge cantilever bridge, and was actually considered one of the modern wonders of the world when it was built (from 1882 to 1890). It is a rail bridge.

These big piers above support the bridge, which connects the two counties via the towns of South Queensferry and North Queensferry (we are really imaginative with our two names here !). The bridge is massive and dominates the skyline in both towns.

The bridge is famous for its red colour, which is actually from a specialised paint that protects the iron work on the bridge considering's its 130 years old now, and is still carrying lots of rail traffic daily. It used to be the case that painting the bridge was a year round affair - once they had finished it, it was time to start again, and so the painters worked full time on the bridge, all year round !

Its quite a popular bridge and lots of people go to see it because of its lovely design, like an iron dinosaur connecting across the firth. You can get lovely views of it from all around the Firth, and its a tourist attraction all in its own right !

Sir William Arrol became quite famous in Scotland for his role in the engineering side of the bridge, and interesting, I actually worked with his grandson (or great grandson) back in the 1990s who at the time was also an engineer !

There are now actually three bridges quite close to each other spanning the firth. The other two sit behind the rail bridge and carry road traffic. The original traffic bridge was found to be defective around 10 years ago, and hence the third bridge was put up quite quickly to take the burden, as its quite a busy crossing route and carries traffic from large parts of the country into Edinburgh the capital, and its also a main through route towards the south of Scotland and England.

Being a geek, I'm quite a fan, it it just looks like the best mecano set ever !

And there are lovely walks right along the shore here, and also on the north side - which makes for lovely viewing !

Its sort of like the Scottish equivalent of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, with its structural steel design - just not quite as famous !!! But for us here in Scotland, its something we are proud of !

Well, I just thought I'd share the pics we took of this lovely bridge - its an incredible thing to see up close, and I just love it !!!