The New Forth Road Bridge

This painting documents the construction of a suspension bridge across the Firth of Forth, an estuary in Scotland, connecting Fife with the larger city of Edinburgh. It replaced a ferry established in the 11th century. Prior to the bridge’s construction, vehicular traffic from Edinburgh would travel forty miles south to cross the estuary and another forty miles north to reach Fife.
A marvel of engineering, when the bridge was completed in 1964, it was the longest suspension bridge outside the United States and the fourth largest bridge in the world. Its total length is 8,238 feet and its two towers, 512 feet above mean river level support the two 2-foot (diameter) cables. The construction project used 39,000 tons of steel and 150,000 cubic yards of concrete.
The painting shows the two side span piers almost complete and the foundations for the two cable towers complete at left. Holes and foundations for the next side span pier are being built as is the cable anchorage near the third side span pier at right. These piers support the approach viaduct at the south end of the bridge. A new bridge constructed next to the Forth Road Bridge opened in 2017 for the majority of vehicular traffic crossing the Firth of Forth: the Forth Road Bridge from 1964 is now used mainly by buses and cyclists.