95-670: The Jamestown Viaduct is part of the northern approach to the Forth Bridge in Scotland . It crosses the hamlet of Jamestown and the village of North Queensferry in Fife. It was constructed between 1887 and 1890, and listed as a Grade B listed building in 2004. In 2005, the viaduct was strengthened during an eight-day closure of the railway. 120 tonnes (118.1 long tons; 132.3 short tons) of steel and 600 cubic metres (21,000 cu ft) of high strength concrete were used to add
190-491: A cantilever bridge , was drawn up by Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir John Fowler . The Forth Bridge was completed in 1890. Bouch also seems to have been involved in the design of pleasure piers. He designed Portobello Pier in 1869, which opened in 1871. The structure rusted badly and by 1917 was uneconomic to repair and was demolished. Thomas was a brother of William Bouch , the railway engine designer. Thomas Bouch bought
285-619: A 12-arch design constructed in brick, carried the Stanhope and Tyne Railway 175 feet (53 m) above Hownsgill. Today it forms part of the Sea to Sea Cycle Route . Bouch returned repeatedly to the problem of bridging the two great East Coast firths. Eventually authorisation was given to bridge both the Tay and the Forth; in both cases Bouch was the engineer selected to design the bridge. Bouch designed
380-516: A barge, formerly called the Hougoumont that was moored off South Queensferry. For a time a paddle steamer was hired for the movement of workers, but after a time it was replaced with one capable of carrying 450 men, and the barges were also used for carrying people. Special trains were run from Edinburgh and Dunfermline, and a steamer ran to Leith in the summer. The three towers of the cantilever are each seated on four circular piers. Since
475-688: A country house in Moffat , "his health", already not good, "more rapidly gave way... under the shock and distress of mind" caused by the disaster. However he kept offices in Edinburgh, at 111 George Street, his Edinburgh address being 6 Oxford Terrace, near Dean Bridge . He died at his house in Moffat on 30 October 1880 a few months after the public inquiry into the disaster finished. He is buried very close by, in Dean Cemetery . "In his death", said
570-425: A fire in a bothy , 1 of caisson disease , and the cause of five deaths is unknown. The Sick and Accident Club was founded in 1883, and membership was compulsory for all contractors' employees. It would provide medical treatment to men and sometimes their families, and pay them if they were unable to work. The club also paid for funerals within certain limits, and would provide grants to the widows of men killed or
665-451: A landing stage at Inchgarvie commenced. Extant buildings, including fortifications built in the 15th century, were roofed over to increase the available space, and the rock at the west of the island was cut down to a level seven feet (2.1 m) above high water, and a seawall was built to protect against large waves. In 1884 a compulsory purchase order was obtained for the island, as it was found that previously available area enclosed by
760-439: A large extent before being floated to their final resting-places. The first caisson, for the south-west pier at South Queensferry was launched on 26 May 1884, and the last caisson was launched on 29 May 1885 for the south-west pier at Inchgarvie. When the caissons had been launched and moored, they were extended upwards with a temporary portion in order to keep water out and allow the granite pier to be built when in place. Above
855-399: A locomotive engine could be run with perfect safety and ease - if he gave it without any extravagance, then he should only have done his duty, but if he failed then he should deserve all the obloquy and discredit attaching to the failure of light works. … Mr Whitwell had spoken of his character as a maker of cheap railways, but in giving a cheap Eden Valley railway he had relied entirely upon
950-521: A practice never existed, as weathered areas were given more attention, but there was a permanent maintenance crew. Between 2001 and 2011, the bridge was covered in a new coating designed to last for 25 years, bringing an end to having painters as a regular part of the maintenance crew. Colin Hardie, of Balfour Beatty Construction , was reported as saying, Thomas Bouch Sir Thomas Bouch ( / ˈ b aʊ tʃ / ; 25 February 1822 – 30 October 1880)
1045-458: A principle that has been used for thousands of years in the construction of bridges. In order to illustrate the use of tension and compression in the bridge, a demonstration in 1887 had the Japanese engineer Kaichi Watanabe supported between Fowler and Baker sitting in chairs. Fowler and Baker represent the cantilevers, with their arms in tension and the sticks under compression, and the bricks
SECTION 10
#17327766633761140-593: A rail link from Ratho in 1868, establishing a contiguous link with Fife. Interest in bridging the Forth increased again, and in 1871 Bouch proposed a stiffened steel suspension bridge on roughly the same line as taken by the present rail bridge. This design was examined and pronounced acceptable by W. H. Barlow and William Pole , both "eminent" civil engineers, and Parliament passed in August 1873 an act authorising its construction. Work started in September 1878, in
1235-488: A reinforced concrete slab underneath the track, in order to improve the load-carrying capacity to Network Rail 's standards. The work was worth around £5 million , and engineered by Corus and carried out by Mowlem . 20,000 man-hours were worked during the period of closure, which coincided with a "possession" of the Forth Bridge. It has four main steel girder spans, supported by three sandstone piers. As well as
1330-409: A slope of around 1 in 5, so the rock was prepared with concrete and sandbags to make a landing-spot for the caissons. Excavation was carried out by drilling and blasting , but no blasting was done within 1.5 ft (0.46 m) of the caissons, and the remaining rock was quarried to within 6 in (150 mm). Once the positions of the piers had been established, the first task at the Fife end
1425-408: Is RA8, but freight trains above a certain size must not pass each other on the bridge. Up to 190–200 trains per day crossed the bridge in 2006. "Painting the Forth Bridge" is a colloquial expression for a never-ending task, coined on the erroneous belief that at one time in the history of the bridge repainting was required and commenced immediately upon completion of the previous repaint. Such
1520-517: The A90 road , but the viaduct has a slight curve to the east. Forth Bridge The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland , 9 miles (14 kilometres) west of central Edinburgh . Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in 2016), and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . It
1615-572: The London and North Western Railway and Caledonian Railway on a west coast route . With competition opened along the east coast route from the Great Northern , North Eastern and North British railways and starting from King's Cross , unofficial racing took place between the two consortia, reducing the journey time to about 8 1 ⁄ 2 hours on the overnight runs. This reached a climax in 1895 with sensational daily press reports about
1710-489: The North British Railway (NBR) and Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway , was in 1863–1864 working on a single-track girder bridge crossing the Forth near Charlestown , where the river is around 2 miles (3.2 km) wide, but mostly relatively shallow. The promoters, however, were concerned about the ability to set foundations in the silty river bottom, as borings had gone as deep as 231 feet (70 m) into
1805-554: The Scottish North Eastern Railway . In September 1866, a committee of shareholders investigating rumours of financial difficulties found that accounts had been falsified, and the chairman and the entire board had resigned by November. By mid-1867 the NBR was nearly bankrupt, and all work on the Forth and Tay bridges was stopped. The North British Railway took over the ferry at Queensferry in 1867, and completed
1900-474: The South Esk Viaduct , at Montrose , but after another inspection, the bridge was demolished and replaced. The remains of the original Tay bridge were demolished and replaced by an entirely new design by William Henry Barlow and his son Crawford Barlow. Some of the wrought iron girders were re-used in the new double track bridge by cutting them in half and re-welding to form wider structures for
1995-621: The " Race to the North ". When race fever subsided the journey times became around 10 1 ⁄ 2 hours. In the First World War British sailors would time their departures or returns to the base at Rosyth by asking when they would pass under the bridge. The first German air attack on Britain in the Second World War took place over the Forth Bridge, six weeks into the war, on 16 October 1939. Although known as
SECTION 20
#17327766633762090-514: The "Forth Bridge Raid", the bridge was not the target and not damaged. In all, 12 German Junkers Ju 88 bombers led by two reconnaissance Heinkel He 111s from Westerland on the island of Sylt , 460 miles (400 nmi; 740 km) away, reached the Scottish coast in four waves of three. The target of the attack was shipping from the Rosyth naval base in the Forth, about 2 miles (3.2 km) to
2185-401: The 1860s, some surviving and still carrying railway traffic. Being the engineer, Thomas Bouch was blamed for the collapse of the Tay bridge. His assistant, Charles Meik , conveyed the impression that he "was aptly named", implying that he had no real influence over the design and construction. After the inquiry, Bouch rapidly removed and reinforced similar lugs on the new bridge he had built,
2280-678: The Act, Forth Bridge shareholders would receive £109 of British Transport stock for each £100 of Forth Bridge Debenture stock; and £104 17 s 6 d of British Transport stock for each £100 of Forth Bridge Ordinary stock. As of April 2017, the bridge and its associated railway infrastructure were owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Limited . The bridge has a speed limit of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) for high-speed trains and diesel multiple units , 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) for ordinary passenger trains and 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) for freight trains. The route availability code
2375-400: The Fife end had to be removed to make way for the north-east pier. The rocky shore was levelled to a height of 7 feet (2.1 m) above high water to make way for plant and materials, and huts and other facilities for workmen were set up further inland. The preparations at South Queensferry were much more substantial, and required the steep hillside to be terraced. Wooden huts and shops for
2470-527: The Forth Bridge a more deadly structure than the failed Tay Bridge when counting both the 59 known deaths attributed to the Tay Bridge Disaster , that led to the earlier proposal for the Forth Bridge construction being halted and subsequently redesigned, combined with the 14 deaths during its construction. Before the opening of the Forth Bridge, the railway journey from London to Aberdeen had taken about 13 hours running from Euston and using
2565-591: 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 . Before
2660-571: The NBR sponsored the Forth Bridge project which would give them a direct link independent of the Caledonian Railway . A conference at York in 1881 set up the Forth Bridge Railway Committee, to which the NBR contributed 35% of the cost. The remaining money came from three English railways, which ran trains from London over NBR tracks. The Midland Railway , which connected to the NBR at Carlisle and which owned
2755-506: The NBR, proposed that the company invest £18,000 to try a different kind of foundation, as the weighted caissons had not been successful. Bouch proposed using a large pine platform underneath the piers, 80 by 60 by 7 feet (24.4 m × 18.3 m × 2.1 m) (the original design called for a 114 by 80 by 9 feet (34.7 m × 24.4 m × 2.7 m) platform of green beech) weighed down with 10,000 tonnes (9,800 long tons; 11,000 short tons) of pig iron which would sink
2850-579: The Siemens brothers and improvements by the Martin brothers, the process of manufacture enabled high quality steel to be produced quickly. The new works took possession of offices and stores erected by Arrol in connection with Bouch's bridge; these were expanded considerably over time. Reginald Middleton took an accurate survey to establish the exact position of the bridge and allow the permanent construction work to commence. The old coastguard station at
2945-748: The St Andrews Railway showed). Bouch did the initial survey for the Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway , laid out tramway systems in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and London, and designed the Redheugh viaduct a road bridge across the Tyne at the same height as and not far upstream of Stephenson's High Level Bridge . He also designed Hownes Gill Viaduct in Consett , County Durham, which at 700 feet (210 m) long and using
Jamestown Viaduct - Misplaced Pages Continue
3040-582: The West Cumbrian haematite mines and the area served by the Stockton and Darlington (which was behind them): His response to a toast at a dinner after the cutting of the first sod on the Eden Railway gave his philosophy on the engineering of those lines: The works were all of a light and inexpensive character, and if he gave them a first-class railway, - one upon which any speed attainable by
3135-588: The advice of the Astronomer Royal – he had assumed a wind loading of only 10 lb/sq ft (49 kg/m ). This had been accepted by Barlow and Pole in their 1873 assessment of the design, though they qualified in their report that "[while] we raise no object to Mr. Bouch's system, we do not commit ourselves to an opinion that it is the best possible". Bouch's design was formally abandoned on 13 January 1881, and Sir John Fowler , W. H. Barlow, and T. E. Harrison, consulting engineers to
3230-577: The bomber crew at Port Seton were rescued and made prisoners-of-war. Two bodies were recovered from the Crail wreckage and after a full military funeral with firing party, were interred in Portobello cemetery, Edinburgh. The body of the gunner was never found. A wartime propaganda film, Squadron 992 , made by the GPO Film Unit after the raid, recreated it and conveyed the false impression that
3325-418: The caisson with water, and when the tide fell but the water did not drain from the caisson, its top-heaviness caused to tilt further. Plates were bolted on by divers to raise the edge of the caisson above water level, and the caisson was reinforced with wooden struts as water was pumped out, but pumping took place too quickly and the water pressure tore a hole between 25 and 30 feet (7.6 and 9.1 m) long. It
3420-635: The cantilever end piers which are weighted with cast iron. The bridge was the first major structure in Britain to be constructed of steel; its French contemporary, the Eiffel Tower , was built of wrought iron . Large amounts of steel became available after the invention of the Bessemer process , patented in 1856. In 1859, the Board of Trade imposed a limit of 77.22 N/mm (5 LTf/in ) for
3515-468: The centre where they were required. Steel was delivered by train and prepared at the yard at South Queensferry , painted with boiled linseed oil , and was then taken to where it was needed by barge. The cement used was Portland cement manufactured on the Medway . It required to be stored before it was able to be used, and up to 1,200 tonnes (1,200 long tons; 1,300 short tons) of cement could be kept in
3610-609: The coast of Fife. After the War it was learned that a third bomber had come down in the Netherlands as a result of damage inflicted during the raid. Later in the month, a reconnaissance Heinkel 111 crashed near Humbie in East Lothian and photographs of this crashed plane were, and still are, used erroneously to illustrate the raid of 16 October, thus sowing confusion as to whether a third aircraft had been brought down. Members of
3705-471: The collapsed Tay Bridge were laid across the railway to the west in order to allow access to the ground there. Near the shore a sawmill and cement store were erected, and a substantial jetty around 2,100 feet (640 m) long was started early in 1883, and extended as necessary, and sidings were built to bring railway vehicles among the shops, and cranes set up to allow the loading and movement of material delivered by rail. In April 1883, construction of
3800-468: The construction of the bridge and its immediate aftermath. It is thought that the figure of 57 deaths excluded those who died working on the approaches to the bridge, as those parts were completed by a subcontractor, as well as those who died after the Sick and Accident Club stopped. Of the 73 recorded deaths, 38 were as a result of falling, 9 of being crushed, 9 drowned, 8 struck by a falling object, 3 died in
3895-470: The construction of the bridge, ferries 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
Jamestown Viaduct - Misplaced Pages Continue
3990-418: The contractors to the railway company sacrificed safety and durability to save costs. Sloppy work practices, such as poor casting of the metal, and the re-use of girders dropped into the estuary during construction, were factors in the bridge's collapse. The inquiry concluded that the bridge was "badly designed, badly built, and badly maintained". The entire "high girders" section, in which trains ran inside
4085-505: The cruisers, Southampton and Edinburgh were damaged. Sixteen Royal Navy crew died and 44 were wounded, although this information was not made public at the time. Spitfires from 603 "City of Edinburgh" Squadron RAF intercepted the raiders and during the attack shot down the first German aircraft downed over Britain in the war. One bomber came down in the water off Port Seton on the East Lothian coast and another off Crail on
4180-471: The defects in design. In particular, Bouch had failed to properly account for the effect that high winds would have on the bridge, and in response to this finding the Board of Trade imposed a requirement that all bridges be designed to accept a lateral wind loading of 56 lb/sq ft (270 kg/m ). Bouch's 1871 design for the Forth Bridge fell significantly short of this figure, as – on
4275-464: The design load of the bridge: the deflection under load was as expected. A few days previously there had been a violent storm, producing the highest wind pressure recorded to date at Inchgarvie, and the deflection of the cantilevers had been less than 25 mm (1 in). The first complete crossing took place on 24 February, when a train consisting of two carriages carrying the chairmen of the railway companies involved made several crossings. The bridge
4370-592: The design necessitated a further 16,000 tonnes (16,000 long tons; 18,000 short tons), about half of this was supplied by the Steel Company of Scotland Ltd. and half by Dalzell's Iron and Steel Works in Motherwell. About 4,200 tonnes (4,100 long tons; 4,600 short tons) of rivets came from the Clyde Rivet Company of Glasgow. Around three or four thousand tons of steel was scrapped, some of which
4465-511: The design of the engineer James Carswell . The supports of the approach viaducts are tapered to prevent the impression of the columns widening as they approach the top, and an evaluation of the aesthetics of the Bridge in 2007, by A. D. Magee of the University of Bath , identified that order was present throughout, and this included in the approach viaducts. Magee points out that the masonry
4560-534: The detailed engineering of the Belah viaduct piers (and described the viaduct as one of the lightest and cheapest of the kind that had ever been erected.) Elsewhere, Bouch's forte was cheapness, and an ability to construct branch lines at a capital cost that might allow them to pay their way, especially if operated frugally (In 1854 Bouch advised the directors of the Peebles Railway that the company should work
4655-419: The double track elevated 150 feet (45.72 m) above the water level at high tide. It consists of two main spans of 1,700 feet (518.16 m), two side spans of 680 ft (207.3 m), and 15 approach spans of 168 ft (51.2 m). Each main span consists of two 680 ft (207.3 m) cantilever arms supporting a central 350 feet (106.7 m) span truss. The weight of the bridge superstructure
4750-529: The easy district, and not on inferiority of the works. The line would be carried out in the most permanent and substantial manner possible. He made considerable use of lattice girder bridges, both with conventional masonry piers and with iron lattice piers; the most notable examples of the latter being on the Stainmore line: the Deepdale and Belah Viaducts . A contemporary treatise on iron bridges praised
4845-645: The first Tay Rail Bridge while working for the North British Railway, and the official opening took place in May 1878. Queen Victoria travelled over it in late June 1879, and she awarded him a knighthood in recognition of his achievement. The bridge collapsed on 28 December 1879, in the Tay Bridge disaster , when it was hit by strong side winds. A train was travelling over it at the time, and 75 people died. The subsequent public inquiry revealed that
SECTION 50
#17327766633764940-565: The form of a brick pier at the western end of the mid-Forth island of Inchgarvie . After the Tay Bridge collapsed in 1879, confidence in Bouch dried up and the work stopped. The public inquiry into the disaster, chaired by Henry Cadogan Rothery , found the Tay Bridge to be "badly designed, badly constructed and badly maintained", with Bouch being "mainly to blame" for the defects in construction and maintenance and "entirely responsible" for
5035-544: The foundations each of which is different to suit the different sites, is a tapered circular granite pier with a diameter of 55 feet (17 m) at the bottom and a height of 36 feet (11 m). The rock on which the two northern piers at Inchgarvie are located is submerged at high water, and of the other two piers, the site of the eastern one is about half submerged and the western one was three-quarters submerged. This meant work initially had to be done at low tide. The southern piers on Inchgarvie are sited on solid rock with
5130-429: The foundations were required to be constructed at or below sea level, they were excavated with the assistance of caissons and cofferdams . Caissons were used at locations that were either always under water, even at low tide , or where the foundations were to be built on mud and clay . Cofferdams were used where rock was nearer to the surface, and it was possible to work in low tide. Six caissons were excavated by
5225-568: The four piers of the bridge was insufficient for the storage of materials. Iron staging reinforced wood in heavily used areas was put up over the island, eventually covering around 10,000 square yards (8,400 m ) and using over 1,000 tonnes (980 long tons; 1,100 short tons) of iron. The bridge uses 55,000 tonnes (54,000 long tons; 61,000 short tons) of steel and 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m ) of masonry. Many materials, including granite from Aberdeen , Arbroath rubble, sand, timber, and sometimes coke and coal, could be taken straight to
5320-403: The four steel spans, there is a stone arch at each end of the viaduct. The steel spans are 33.4 metres (110 ft) long, and are at a skew of 70° The spans consist of twin truss girders sitting on the piers, and on top of the truss cross-girders supporting steel deck plates, with a ballasted track . The viaduct carries the line crossing the Forth Bridge , from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and
5415-528: The girders rather than on top of them, fell during the accident, taking the train with it. Analysis of the archives has shown that the design, which featured cast-iron columns with integral lugs holding the tie bars, was a critical mistake, because cast iron is brittle under tension. Many similar bridges had been built using cast-iron columns and wrought iron tie bars, but none used that particular design detail. Gustave Eiffel built many such bridges in France in
5510-485: 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". For the railway age, Thomas Bouch designed for the Edinburgh and Northern Railway a roll-on/roll-off ferry between Granton and Burntisland that opened in 1850, which proved so successful that another
5605-519: The line themselves, as they could do so much more economically than a large undertaking.) Examples included branches to St Andrews , to Leven , and to Peebles , the Peebles line being described in his obituary as "long the pattern for cheap construction". This could leave over-optimistic clients with a railway designed and built to a price and not making enough money to support proper maintenance (and hence laying up problems for itself as an accident on
5700-416: The main target was the bridge. Before the opening of the bridge, the North British Railway (NBR) had lines on both sides of the Firth of Forth between which trains could not pass except by running at least as far west as Alloa and using the lines of a rival company. The only alternative route between Edinburgh and Fife involved the ferry at Queensferry, which was purchased by the NBR in 1867. Accordingly,
5795-471: The maximum design stress in railway bridges; this was revised as technology progressed. The original design required 42,000 tonnes (41,000 long tons; 46,000 short tons) for the cantilevers only, of which 12,000 tonnes (12,000 long tons; 13,000 short tons) was to come from Siemens' steel works in Landore , Wales and the remainder from the Steel Company of Scotland's works near Glasgow. When modifications to
SECTION 60
#17327766633765890-402: The mud without finding rock, but Bouch conducted experiments to demonstrate that it was possible for the silt to support considerable weight. Experiments in late 1864 with weighted caissons achieved a pressure of 5 t/sq ft (4.9 long ton/sq ft; 5.5 short ton/sq ft) on the silt, encouraging Bouch to continue with the design. In August 1865, Richard Hodgson, chairman of
5985-483: The north of Scotland, and carries a significant volume of both passenger and freight rail traffic, which previously included transporting coal to Longannet Power Station prior to its closure in 2016. As of 2006 there were up to 200 train movements a day and loads of 27 million tonnes annually. It spans the B981 public road and the former branch railway to North Queensferry and Rosyth. It runs close to and nearly parallel to
6080-468: The observation that "there was little merit in a simple conception of this kind, compared with a work practically carried out in all its details, and brought to perfection." Bouch then set up on his own as a railway engineer, working chiefly in Scotland and Northern England. Lines he designed include four connecting lines all built by separate companies, which together allowed a direct connection between
6175-476: The pneumatic method, and are identical in design except for differences in height. A T shaped jetty was built at the site of the South Queensferry piers, to allow one caisson to be attached to each corner, and when launched the caissons were attached to the jetty and permitted to rise and fall with the tide. Excavation beneath the caissons was generally only carried out at high tide when the caisson
6270-595: The pneumatic process, by the French contractor L. Coisea. This process used a positive air pressure inside a sealed caisson to allow dry working conditions at depths of up to 89 feet (27 m). These caissons were constructed and assembled in Glasgow by the Arrol Brothers, namesakes of but unconnected to W. Arrol, before being dismantled and transported to South Queensferry. The caissons were then built up to
6365-530: The precursors of the North British Railway . He introduced the first roll-on roll-off train ferries in the world, across the Firth of Forth from Granton to Burntisland in Fife (3 February 1850.) Others had had similar ideas, but Bouch put them into effect, and did so with an attention to detail (such as design of the ferry slip ) which led a subsequent President of the Institution of Civil Engineers to settle any dispute over priority of invention with
6460-438: The project, were invited to propose new designs. Bouch's Inchgarvie pier was left in place, protruding approximately 7 ft (2 m) from the water at high tide. It lies directly under the present bridge and was equipped with a small navigational light c. 1887 . 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) with
6555-431: The required shape, they were first heated in a gas furnace, and then pressed into the correct curve. The curved plates were then assembled on a mandrel , and holes drilled for rivets, before they were marked individually and moved to the correct location to be added to the structure. Lattice members and other parts were also assembled at South Queensferry, using cranes and highly efficient hydraulic rivetters. The bridge
6650-551: The route to London St Pancras , contributed 30%, and 17.5% came equally from each of the North Eastern Railway and the Great Northern Railway , which between them owned the route between Berwick-upon-Tweed and London King's Cross , via Doncaster . This body undertook to construct and maintain the bridge. In 1882 the NBR were given powers to purchase the bridge, which it never exercised. At
6745-461: The slope of the hill under the viaducts, the girders were assembled at different heights, and only joined when they had reached the same level. Lifting was done using large hydraulic rams , and took place in increments of around 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) every four days. The tubular members were constructed in the No. 2 workshop further up the hill at South Queensferry. To bend plates into
6840-413: The small uninhabited island of Inchgarvie acted as cofferdams , while the remaining two on Inchgarvie and those for the south cantilever, where the river bed was 91 ft (28 m) below high-water level, used compressed air to keep water out of the working chamber at the base. The bridge is built on the principle of the cantilever bridge , where a cantilever beam supports a light central girder,
6935-469: The successful completion of the first Tay Railway Bridge , but his reputation was destroyed by the subsequent Tay Bridge disaster , in which 75 people are believed to have died as a result of defects in design, construction and maintenance, for all of which Bouch was held responsible. He died within 18 months of being knighted. Bouch's father (a retired sea-captain) kept the Ship Inn at Thursby and Thomas
7030-561: The time of the 1923 Grouping , the bridge was still jointly owned by the same four railways, and so it became jointly owned by these companies' successors, the London Midland and Scottish Railway (30%) and the London and North Eastern Railway (70%). The Forth Bridge Railway Company was named in the Transport Act 1947 as one of the bodies to be nationalised and so became part of British Railways on 1 January 1948. Under
7125-425: The track. The brick and masonry piers from the old bridge were left as breakwaters for the new piers, which were monocoques of wrought iron and steel. Bouch's design for a suspension bridge to take a railway across the Firth of Forth , had been accepted and the foundation stone laid, but the project was cancelled following the Tay Bridge disaster . One of the piers still remains at the site. A different design,
7220-535: The west of the bridge. The Germans were hoping to find HMS Hood , the largest capital ship in the Royal Navy. Luftwaffe rules of engagement restricted action to targets on water and not in the dockyard. Although HMS Repulse was in Rosyth, the attack was concentrated on the cruisers Edinburgh and Southampton , the carrier Furious and the destroyer Jervis . The destroyer Mohawk and
7315-534: The wives of those permanently disabled. Eight men were saved from drowning by rowing boats positioned in the river under the working areas. In 2019, it was reported that historians of the Queensferry Historian Group had discovered that at least 21 more men died building the Forth Bridge than was previously thought, in an alleged "cover up" of the true human cost of the structure, taking the new death toll to 78. Tragically, this arguably makes
7410-407: The wooden platform to the level of the silt. The platform was launched on 14 June 1866 after some difficulty in getting it to move down the greased planks it rested on, and then moored in the harbour for six weeks pending completion. The bridge project was aborted just before the platform was sunk as the NBR expected to lose "through traffic" following the amalgamation of the Caledonian Railway and
7505-451: The workmen were put up, as well as more substantial brick houses for the foremen and tenements for leading hands and gangers. Drill roads and workshops were built, as well as a drawing loft 200 by 60 feet (61 by 18 m) to allow full size drawings and templates to be laid out. A cable was also laid across the Forth to allow telephone communication between the centres at South Queensferry, Inchgarvie, and North Queensferry, and girders from
7600-407: Was 50,513 long tons (51,324 t), including the 6.5 million rivets used. The bridge also used 640,000 cubic feet (18,122 m ) of granite . The three great four-tower cantilever structures are 361 feet (110.03 m) tall, each tower resting on a separate granite pier. These were constructed using 70 ft (21 m) diameter caissons ; those for the north cantilever and two on
7695-430: Was a self-made man , who had been apprenticed to a blacksmith at the age of thirteen before going on to have a highly successful business. Tancred was a professional engineer who had worked with Arrol before, but he would leave the partnership during the course of construction. The steel was produced by Frederick and William Siemens (England) and Pierre and Emile Martin (France). Following advances in furnace design by
7790-459: Was a British railway engineer . He was born in Thursby , near Carlisle , Cumberland , and lived in Edinburgh . As manager of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway he introduced the first roll-on/roll-off train ferry service in the world. Subsequently as a consulting engineer, he helped develop the caisson and popularised the use of lattice girders in railway bridges. He was knighted after
7885-428: Was carefully planned, and has neat block work even in areas not immediately visible from the ground. The Bill for the construction of the bridge was passed on 19 May 1882 after an eight-day enquiry, the only objections being from rival railway companies. On 21 December, the contract was let to Sir Thomas Tancred, T. H. Falkiner and Joseph Philips, civil engineers and contractor, and Sir William Arrol & Co. Arrol
7980-458: Was completed in December 1889, and load testing of the completed bridge was carried out on 21 January 1890. Two trains, each consisting of three heavy locomotives and 50 wagons loaded with coal, totalling 1,880 tons in weight, were driven slowly from South Queensferry to the middle of the north cantilever, stopping frequently to measure the deflection of the bridge. This represented more than twice
8075-439: Was completed. It continues to be the world's second-longest single cantilever span, with a span of 1,709 feet (521 m). To make the fullest use of the bridge, several new railway connections were built, bringing main line routes to the bridge. The construction of some of these lines was only completed on 2 June 1890, delaying the implementation of a full express train service over the bridge until that date. Even then, there
8170-570: Was considerable congestion at Edinburgh Waverley station with remarshalling of the portions of the new, more intensive train service. At its peak, approximately 4,600 workers were employed in the bridge's construction. Wilhelm Westhofen recorded in 1890 that 57 people died. In 2005 the Forth Bridge Memorial Committee was set up to erect a monument to those lost, and a team of local historians set out to name all those who died. As of 2009, 73 deaths have been connected with
8265-399: Was decided to build them at a lower level and then raise them in tandem with the construction of the masonry piers. The two viaducts have fifteen spans between them, each one 168 feet (51 m) long and weighing slightly over 200 tonnes (200 long tons; 220 short tons). Two spans are attached together to make a continuous girder , with an expansion joint between each pair of spans. Due to
8360-427: Was decided to construct a "barrel" of large timbers inside the caisson to reinforce it, and it was ten months before the caisson could be pumped out and dug free. The caisson was refloated on 19 October 1885, and then moved into position and sunk with suitable modifications. The approach viaducts to the north and south had to be carried at 130 feet 6 inches (39.78 m) above the level of high water, and it
8455-594: Was designed by English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker . It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge (to distinguish it from the adjacent Forth Road Bridge ), although this is not its official name. Construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Duke of Rothesay , the future Edward VII . The bridge carries the Edinburgh–Aberdeen line across
8550-670: Was educated locally (Thursby and then Carlisle) before at the age of 17 beginning his civil engineering career as assistant to one of the engineers constructing the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway . After a short spell working in Leeds (1844–45) he was for four years one of the Resident Engineers on the Stockton and Darlington Railway , leaving in 1849 to become manager and engineer of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway , one of
8645-461: Was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Duke of Rothesay, later King Edward VII , who drove home the last rivet, which was gold plated and suitably inscribed. The key for the official opening was made by Edinburgh silversmith John Finlayson Bain, commemorated in a plaque on the bridge. When it opened it had the longest single cantilever bridge span in the world, until 1919 when the Quebec Bridge in Canada
8740-414: Was ordered for the Tay. In late 1863, a joint project between the North British Railway and Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway , which would merge in 1865, appointed Stephenson and Toner to design a bridge for the Forth, but the commission was given to Bouch around six months later. It had proven difficult to engineer a suspension bridge that was able to carry railway traffic, and Thomas Bouch, engineer to
8835-418: Was supported by buoyancy, and then when the tide fell the air pressure was reduced in order to allow the caisson to sink down, and digging would begin anew. The north-west caisson was towed into place in December 1884, but an exceptionally low tide on New Year's Day 1885 caused the caisson to sink into the mud of the river bed and adopt a slight tilt. When the tide rose, it flooded over the lower edge, filling
8930-430: Was to level the site of the northernmost piers, a bedrock of whinstone rising to a level of 10 to 20 feet (3.0 to 6.1 m) above high water, to a height of 7 feet (2.1 m) above high water. The south piers at North Queensferry are sited on rock sloping into the sea, and the site was prepared by diamond drilling holes for explosive charges and blasting the rock. The four South Queensferry caissons were all sunk by
9025-550: Was used for temporary purposes, resulting in the discrepancy between the quantity delivered and the quantity erected. After Dalmeny railway station , the track curves slightly to the east before coming to the southern approach viaduct. After the railway crosses the bridge, it passes through North Queensferry railway station , before curving to the west, and then back to the east over the Jamestown Viaduct . The approaches were built under separate contract and were to
#375624