The Forth Bridge, opened in 1890, is the UNESCO-listed cantilever railway bridge across Scotland’s Firth of Forth.
It connects Edinburgh’s northern approaches with Fife and carries railway traffic over the estuary. The bridge uses three double-cantilever towers and massive steel members, creating three main spans of about 521 metres each.
The Forth Bridge officially opened on March 4, 1890, in a ceremony attended by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. Its bold red steelwork made it a symbol of Victorian engineering and industrial confidence. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in 2015.
The bridge is frequently confused with the Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing, which are neighboring road bridges. The Forth Bridge is specifically the railway bridge. Its distinctive design also helped popularize the phrase “painting the Forth Bridge,” although the idea of an endlessly continuous painting job is largely a myth.