Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0256Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is taken from a ship's deck, four men can bee seen on the ship while a bridge is visible in the background. Above the image "T293 (Star)" is printed, below the image "2685T The Forth Bridge, the Pride of Scotland, from the Deck of an American Battleship near Edinburgh, Scotland." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
2685
FORTH BRIDGE FROM THE DECK OF AN AMERICAN WARSHIP
Swinging in vast meshes like gigantic spider webs above the broad waters of the Forth ten miles ewst of Edinburgh, we see, bathed in the golden sunlight of a Scottish summer afternoon, the wonderful bridge which M. Eiffel, the eminent French engineer, pronounced after its completion "the greatest construction of the world." Across this mighty structure the line of the London an Northeastern Railway leading from Edinburgh to Dundee and Aberdeen is carried northward over the Firth of Forth, the great arm of the North sea which almost cuts Scotland in two. it is built on the principle of the cantilvere and central girder, its own weight holding it more firmly in position, and its most remarkable feature is the great spread of the two main spans, each measuring 1,710 feet between supporting towers. The structure was formally opened on March 4, 1890, by the Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward VII. Since then only two greater arches have been built; that of the St. lawrence bridge at Quebec, Canada, completed in 1917, with a single cantilever span of 1,800 feet, and the suspension bridge crossing the Delaware river at Philadelphia with a span of 1,750 feet, which was finished in 1926.
Each main span of the Forth bridge is formed of two cantilevers 680 feet long, springing from steel towers and united at the center by a girder 250 feet long. The towers are 360 feet high, nearly as high as the dome of St. Paul's, London, and they rest on granite piers of which the middle one is built on the islet of Inchgarvie. Two additional spans of 680 feet each and fifteen of 168 feet, together with the approaching viaducts give the whole structure a length of 8,295 feet. The clear headway is 151 feet above, and the deepest foundation 88 feet below, high water; the steel wights 51,000 tons, and the bridge cost nearly $15,000,000.
Copyright by Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection