Forth Bridge under construction

Photograph of part of Inchgarvie and Queensferry works, showing the span to be bridged.

The only picture in the series taken expressly to illustrate the phenomenal dimensions of the gaps to be crossed, and except in conjunction with others, one that is therefore scarcely to be recommended, as three-fourths of the picture is a blank.

Of the space represented by 20 inches on the paper, only 4 inches was at this date covered by projecting arms of cantilever, but as progress continues this picture will become one of the most valuable of the series, for not only is it a view which can never be hereafter secured, but the one of all others to emphasise and bring home to the least observant the unprecedented dimensions of the two giddy leaps which form the special feature of the great Forth Bridge.

Transcription from: Philip Phillips, 'The Forth Railway Bridge', Edinburgh, 1890.

From 40 photographs of the Forth Rail Bridge by Philip Phillips. Held by National Library of Scotland.

See also Scotland's pages which features an article on opening of the Forth Bridge in 1890.