The Forth Bridge had the world’s longest cantilever bridge span when it opened across Scotland’s Firth of Forth in 1890.
The red-painted railway bridge connects the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry. Its designers were John Fowler and Benjamin Baker, who developed a massive steel cantilever structure after the collapse of the Tay Bridge in 1879 prompted much stricter attention to railway-bridge safety.
The bridge’s three main double cantilever towers rise about 100 metres above their foundations, and its three spans each measure 521 metres. It carries the Edinburgh–Aberdeen railway and remains an important rail crossing. The bridge became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, recognized for its engineering achievement and industrial-era design.
The Forth Bridge is separate from the Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing, which carry road traffic nearby. Its name can therefore be confusing: in common usage, “the Forth Bridge” usually means the railway bridge, not the later road crossings.