ABSTRACT
The design and construction of the Forth Railway Bridge was a massive project extending over at least 10 years. A design for a bridge to span the Forth was prepared by Sir Thomas Bouch in the early 1870s, and the first foundation pier was begun in 1878. Bouch thought in terms of a stiffened suspension bridge to carry rail traffic. Many suspension bridges had been built to carry the road traffic of those days, which consisted mainly of horses and carts and carriages. The Menai tubular bridge was the largest rail bridge in the UK at that time, and had two main spans of 460 ft. Influenced by the widespread popular fears aroused by the Tay bridge failure, Parliament imposed many restrictions, including a new wind loading of 56 lbs/ft2. It instructed the Board of Trade to inspect every stage of construction, no doubt mindful of the poor quality of ironwork inherent in the earlier disaster.
