Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 13, 2008



The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge, built in 1964, spans the Firth of Forth, connecting the capital city Edinburgh at South Queensferry to Fife at North Queensferry. The toll bridge replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians across the Forth; rail crossings are made by the adjacent and historic Forth Bridge.

The first crossing at what is now the site of the bridge was established in the 11th century by Margaret, queen consort of King Malcolm III, who founded a ferry service to transport religious pilgrims from Edinburgh to Dunfermline Abbey and St Andrews. Its creation gave rise to the port towns which remain to this day, and the service remained in uninterrupted use as a passenger ferry for over eight hundred years. As early as the 1740s there were proposals for a road crossing at the site, although their viability was only considered following the construction of the first Forth bridge in 1890.

Designed and constructed at a cost of £11.5 million, (£19.5 million including road connections and realignments), seven lives were lost during construction before the bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh on 4 September 1964. The bridge's central main span is 1006 m (3298 ft) long, its two side spans are each 408 m (1338 ft) long, and the approach viaducts are 252 m (827 ft) on the north side and 438 m (1437 ft) on the south side; at a total length of 2512 m (8242 ft), it was the longest suspension bridge outside the United States and the fourth-largest in the world at the time of its construction