Forth Bridge - masterpiece of 19th century architectural engineering
-The east coast of Scotland is interrupted by two fjord-like bays which represented natural obstacles to the construction of a railway line. For this reason, work began in 1878 on the construction of two bridges. The first bridge erected was intended to cross the Tay estuary at a location some 3.2 km wide. Just one year after completion, the 971 m long central section of the steel railway bridge collapsed during a violent storm. In order to ensure that the structural errors which had led to this catastrophe were not repeated, engineers Benjamin Baker and John Fowler produced an entirely new design for the second bridge over the Firth of Forth.
The design they developed provided for a static system which consisted of a through girder spanning four fields.
In place of the theoretic points of zero moments, the architects incorporated articulations, whereby the construction was determined statically and was thus relatively simple to calculate.
When completed the Forth Bridge broke all records in terms of length, height and quality of material used. It is still today the second longest cantilever bridge ever built.
