 |
| Forth Bridge 1887 |
Forth Bridge is a railway bridge in Scotland. It was built in 1890. It has three main sections, each about 520 meters long. The bridge is 2,529 meters long and 46 meters above sea level. Approximately 190 to 200 trains pass through the bridge every day.
The bridge is built on the principle of the cantilever bridge, where a cantilever beam supports a light central girder, a principle that has been used for thousands of years in the construction of bridges. In order to illustrate the use of tension and compression in the bridge, a demonstration in 1887 had the Japanese engineer Kaichi Watanabe supported between Fowler and Baker sitting in chairs. Fowler and Baker represent the cantilevers, with their arms in tension and the sticks under compression, and the bricks the cantilever end piers which are weighted with cast iron.
