Building The Forth Bridge

During the late 19th century structural steel manufacturing, quality, and cost were rapidly improving. Civilization was in the dawn of the steel age and civil engineers were courageously leading the way to leverage steel to design and build what was once thought impossible. In southern Scotland the Firth of Forth had forever impeded safe and efficient travel from the Capital of Edinburgh in the south to the Highlands of the north. Building a bridge was far from certain in the harsh environment of the Firth of Forth. The two-mile-wide Firth would require record setting foundations, and superstructure design and construction. Construction in the harsh environment of the Firth required extraordinary men, machines, and methods. In 1882 Sir Benjamin Baker, Sir John Fowler, and Sir William Arrol boldly accepted the challenge of spanning the Firth of Forth. Baker, Fowler, and Arrol would have to leverage civil engineering’s collective bridge building body of knowledge and successes of the past such as the newly completed Eads Bridge (1874). And, they would have to innovate new methods and overcome the doubts and the failures of the past such as the Firth of Tay disaster (1879). After starting construction in 1882, the bridge opened to traffic in 1890. The Forth Bridge is an important chapter in the history of bridge design and construction. This presentation will bring the story of the Forth Bridge to life, providing a unique learning opportunity.