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The 1½ mile Forth Bridge was the world’s first major steel bridge. It was begun in 1883 and formally completed on 4 March 1890 when HRH Edward Prince of Wales tapped into place a ‘golden’ rivet.

It is often incorrectly called the Forth Rail Bridge or Forth Railway Bridge to distinguish it from the nearby Forth Road Bridge which was opened in 1964. The rail bridge connects Edinburgh with Fife, and acts as a major artery connecting the north-east and south-east of the country. The bridge is a category A listed building (LB9977 Link Historic Environment Scotland).

Painting the Forth Bridge became a metaphor for a never-ending task, because a team of painters took three years to paint it all, by which time the first bits they had done needed to be re-done, so they started all over again. More advanced and longer-lasting paints now make this unnecessary.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film The 39 Steps includes a scene on the bridge and it is featured even more prominently in the 1959 remake of the same film, although there is no reference to the bridge in the original novel by John Buchan upon which the films are based.

Link Forth Bridges Visitor Centre Trust
Link Wikipedia entry

The bridge, opened in 1964, spans the Firth of Forth; connecting the capital city Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, to Fife, at North Queensferry. The bridge replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians across the Forth.

When opened, on 4 September 1964 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Forth Road Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in Europe, and, together with the approach viaducts is over 1½ miles long. The bridge has a spectacular central span of over 3300 ft. between its two main towers. The side spans, which carry the deck to the side towers, are each 1340 ft. long and are flanked by approach viaducts.

On 3 April 2001 the Forth Road Bridge was listed as a category 'A' building.

The Forth Bridges Visitor Centre Trust charity (from where much of the above information was gathered) was wound up in April 2012 Link .

Other useful links are:
Forth Bridges Visitor Information Link and
Wikipedia entry Link

A rather stilted name for the project to construct a second Forth Road Bridge, as the original [1964] one is wearing out, the Forth Replacement Crossing has now been replaced by the democratically chosen official name. The FRC Bill was approved by the Scottish Parliament in December 2010, and the Bill received Royal Assent in January 2011. Construction began in September 2011 and the bridge is expected to open in 2016, at an estimated cost of £790m. The constructors are Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors [FCBC], a consortium of four companies [Dragados, Hochtief, American Bridge International and Morrison Construction].
Update August 31 2017. Handed over to the Scottish Government on August 28 2017, with an evening light show - more or less finished, late but under budget; opened to traffic on 30 August for two days, then closed to allow around 50000 people to walk across at the weekend [normally, as a motorway, no pedestrians allowed]; to be officially opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 4 September 2017; and finally opened for general use on 7 September.