Forth Rail Bridge

Forth Bridge
Coordinates	56°00′02″N 3°23′19″W / 56.000421°N 3.388726°W / 56.000421; -3.388726Coordinates: 56°00′02″N 3°23′19″W / 56.000421°N 3.388726°W / 56.000421; -3.388726
Carries	Rail traffic
Crosses	Firth of Forth
Locale	Edinburgh, Inchgarvie and Fife, Scotland
Owner	Network Rail
Maintained by	Balfour Beatty under contract to Network Rail
Characteristics
Design	Cantilever bridge
Total length	2.467 km; 1.533 mi (2,467 m)
Width	120 ft (37 m) at piers 32 ft (9.8 m) at centre
Height	361 ft (110 m) above high water
Longest span	2 of 1,700 feet (520 m)
Clearance below	150 ft (46 m) to high water
History
Designer	Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker
Construction begin	1882
Construction end	1890
Opened	4 March 1890
Statistics
Daily traffic	190–200 trains per day
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	The Forth Bridge
Type	cultural
Criteria	i, iv
Designated	2015
Reference no.	1485
Listed Building – Category A
Official name	Forth Bridge
Designated	18 June 1973
Reference no.	LB40370
Forth Bridge Location in Scotland

The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles (14 kilometres) west of Edinburgh City Centre. It is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in 2016), and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was designed by the English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge to distinguish it from the Forth Road Bridge, though this has never been its official name.

Construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. The bridge spans the Forth between the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry and has a total length of 8,094 feet (2,467 m). When it opened it had the longest single cantilever bridge span in the world, until 1919 when the Quebec Bridge in Canada was completed. It continues to be the world's second-longest single cantilever span, with a span of 1,709 feet (521 m).

The bridge and its associated railway infrastructure are owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Limited.

Prior to the construction of the bridge, ferry boats were used to cross the Firth. In 1806, a pair of tunnels, one for each direction, was proposed, and in 1818 James Anderson produced a design for a three-span suspension bridge close to the site of the present one. Calling for approximately 2,500 tonnes (2,500 long tons; 2,800 short tons) of iron, Wilhelm Westhofen said of it "and this quantity [of iron] distributed over the length would have given it a very light and slender appearance, so light indeed that on a dull day it would hardly have been visible, and after a heavy gale probably no longer to be seen on a clear day either."