Fort bridge

For most of the 19th century, the organization of direct rail links on the east coast of Scotland between Edinburgh and Aberdeen was hindered by two wide fjord-shaped bays of the North Sea - the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tey . In 1806, a tunnel was proposed under the Firth of Forth, and in 1818 a bridge was proposed, but both projects were rejected. In 1865, an act of parliament approved the construction of a bridge in a narrow part of the bay near the village of Queensferry . In 1873, a consortium of 4 railway companies commissioned the design of the bridge to Thomas Bauch , who proposed a suspension bridge with two spans of 480 m each . Due to a delay in financing, construction work was delayed, and by 1879 installation of only one support began.

The construction of the bridge was stopped immediately after the disaster on the bridge over the Firth of December on December 28, 1879, just two years after its construction. As a result of a severe storm, the central section of the bridge collapsed along with the passing train, resulting in the death of 75 people. The results of the commission, presented in January 1881, revealed flaws in the design of the collapsed bridge, and the Bauch plan was rejected. After the imminent death of Thomas Bauch, engineers John Fowler and Benjamin Baker presented a new project based on the console structure, which was approved by Parliament in July 1881. Due to the incident with the bridge over Tei, very high demands were made on the bridge over the Firth of Forth - there should not have been any vibrations even with the train passing over the bridge.

Having abandoned cast iron and wrought iron , engineers chose steel, since with the development of the open-hearth furnace in 1865, its quality improved significantly. Having borrowed the experience of American engineer James Eads , who built the first large steel bridge over the Mississippi in 1874, the British began construction in December 1882 and completed the installation of granite bulls by the end of 1885, eight of which are in the water. The foundation preparation of underwater supports was carried out by workers with the help of caissons - massive metal cylinders immersed to a depth of 27 m.

In 1886, work began on the construction of supports, which took an unheard-of amount of steel - 54,860 tons produced at two steel mills in Scotland and one in Wales . 6.5 million rivets with a total weight of 4,267 tons were made in Glasgow . The central span was closed on November 14, 1889. ^[3]

The opening ceremony of the bridge on March 4, 1890 was held by the Prince of Wales ( Edward VII ) in the presence of Benjamin Baker and Gustave Eiffel . ^[4] The total project cost was £ 3.2 million. The opening of the bridge was accompanied by discussions about its aesthetic component - the poet and artist William Morris called the bridge “the top of ugliness” ( English the supremest specimen of all ugliness ). ^[one]

During the construction of the bridge, 57 people died, and eight more were rescued from boats on duty under the bridge (although there are doubts about the exact number of victims). ^[five]

The bridge has three main supports 100.6 m high, the central of which is located on the island of Inchgarvi , in the middle of a deep bay. Consoles assembled from pipes with a diameter of 3.6 m support hoses 207.3 meters long, connected by jumpers 106.7 m long, which makes the total span of 521.3 m. The distance between the supports is 582.8 m, between the extreme bulls - 1630.7 m. The railway runs at an altitude of 48.2 m above the water level in the tide. ^[6]

From the south to the cantilever part of the bridge a viaduct of 10 spans of 51.2 m each is suitable, from the north - of 5 spans.

From the water rose tall and slender, like towers, stone bulls. Thousand-ton steel trusses lay on them. Cherry-painted structures froze with iron waves. Plexus of countless beams, braces, jibs stretched over the water for three kilometers. I recalled the plump textbooks of sopromat, the longing of the uniform plots, tables, frenzied recounts in search of errors.

Once it was the most famous bridge, it seems, the first bridge of the cantilever-beam system; he was cited as an example in all atlases; his scheme hung in our laboratory: “Fort Bridge in Scotland. The triumph of nineteenth-century technology. ” Until now, he impressed with his power.

- D. Granin. Notes to the guide: Two bridges. - Unexpected morning. - L .: Lenizdat , 1970 .-- S. 124-125. - 344 p. - 100,000 copies.

On January 21, 1890, two 300-meter - long trains simultaneously entered the bridge from the south. Two locomotives weighing 72 tons each pulled 50 cars , the total weight of each train was 900 tons. Tests showed that structural displacements were within specified limits.

In 1894, 26,451 passengers traveled across the bridge, with a total load of 7,492,833 tons. In 2000, these indicators amounted to 54,080 people and 10.5 million tons. ^[6]

For over 120 years, since its construction, the Scots have continuously painted the bridge, whose length is 2.5 km. Before the paint at one end of the object had time to dry, rust began to form at the other.

In the UK, the expression “paint the Fort Bridge” has become the equivalent of our phraseological units “ Sisyphean Labor” and “carry water in the sieve”. Since 2012, thanks to the new composition of the special paint, the process of endless painting has been interrupted, it is estimated that at least 25 years. ^[7]

• One of the scenes of Alfred Hitchcock’s film “ Thirty Nine Steps ” of 1935 was shot on the bridge, as well as in his 1959 remake .
• The railway bridge across the Firth of Forth is found in the computer games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (called Kincaid Bridge ) and Need for Speed: Underground
• The bridge over the Firth of Forth was the prototype of the fantastic grotesque bridge, on which the action of Ian Banks 's novel " The Bridge " takes place.
• French tracer Sebastian Foucan, without insurance, made his way along one of the highest points of the bridge for the documentary "Jump Britain", shot by Channel 4 .

• Punin A. L. Architecture of modern foreign bridges. - L .: Stroyizdat, 1974. - 168 p.
• Kunitsky S. Fort Bridge // Journal of the Ministry of Railways. - St. Petersburg, 1890.
• Glen, Ann. Forth Bridge: Restoring an Icon / Ann Glen, Craig Bowman, John Andrew. - Lily Publications, 2012 .-- ISBN 978-1-907945-19-9 .
• Harding, JE Bridge Management: Inspection, maintenance, assessment and repair / JE Harding, Parke Gerard, M Ryall. - CRC Press, 2006. - ISBN 9780203973547 .
• MacKay, Sheila. The Forth Bridge: A Picture History . - Birlinn, 2011 .-- ISBN 978-1-84158-935-0 .
• McKean, Charles. Battle for the North . - Granta Books, 2006. - ISBN 978-1-86207-852-9 .
• Nock, Oswald S. The Railway Race to the North. - Ian Allan, 1958.
• Paxton, Roland. 100 Years of the Forth Bridge . - Thomas Telford, 1990. - ISBN 9780727716002 .
• Summerhayes, Stuart. Design Risk Management . - John Wiley & Sons, 2010 .-- ISBN 9781444318906 .
• Westhofen, Wilhem. The Forth Bridge . - Offices of "Engineering", 1890.
• Wills, Elspeth M. The Briggers: The Story of the Men Who Built the Forth Bridge . - Birlinn, 2009 .-- ISBN 978-1-84158-761-5 .