The railway bridge over the Firth of Forth that opened in 1890 is the Forth Bridge.
The Forth Bridge connects Edinburgh’s northern approaches with Fife and carries railway traffic across the Firth of Forth. It was designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker and opened on 4 March 1890. Its three distinctive double-cantilever towers and extensive steelwork made it one of the most ambitious bridge projects of the Victorian era.
A cantilever bridge supports its spans from structures projecting outward from piers, allowing construction over deep water without requiring a continuous falsework platform. The Forth Bridge’s design used steel rather than wrought iron, reflecting advances in materials and engineering practice.
The bridge remains an active railway crossing. It is frequently confused with the nearby Forth Road Bridge, which opened in 1964 for road traffic, and the Queensferry Crossing, which opened in 2017. The Forth Bridge became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.