Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

{Photo, J. Valentine and Sons.) GENERAL VIEW OF THE FORTH BRIDGE, LOOKING NORTH. THE STORY OF THE FORTH BRIDGE. to spend The Firth of Forth. E have read on a previous page how waters of the estuary, as the only alterna- the existence of the broad Severn estuary forced a railway company some hundreds of thousands of pounds on driving the longest of submarine tunnels. In this chapter we shall give our attention to the great bridge which has done for the counties bordering the Firth of Forth what the Severn Tunnel did for South Wales and the mid-western counties of England. If a line be drawn from North Berwick, in Haddingtonshire, to Anstruther, in Fife, and that line be considered to separate the open sea from the estuary of the Forth, the estuary may be said to be some fifty miles long. From very early times the folk dwelling north of the great inconvenience of being How People crossed it in former Times. Forth felt compelled (1.408) the to ferry across the often rough tive to making a long and circuitous journey vid Stirling to reach the Scottish capital. As a rule they preferred the water, and to meet their needs three recognized points of crossing were established—the ferries from Granton to Burntisland, from South Queens- ferry to North Queensferry, and at Kincar- dine. In course of time the railway arrived at the Forth, and crossed it, first at Stirling, then a few miles farther eastwards, at Alloa. But railway passengers bound from Edinburgh to, say, Dundee, had still to make a weary circuit, and the four big railway systems most interested in the matter decided that it would be worth their while to go to heavy expense to cross the Forth much nearer the sea than is Alloa. As long ago as 1805 some bold spirit had proposed to drive a tunnel under the river at the Qaeensferries. But very naturally, considering the condition of the engineering