First, “Firth of Forth” is not easy to type. Autocorrect helpfully suggests “first of four.” Firth is only sort of an English word, mostly Scottish, deriving from the Norse. It has the same root as “fjord.” The Firth of Forth is a Scottish fjord separating county Fife from Lothian. Forth (the computer wants to add a “u.” I correct it. It corrects me. Writing this post is like playing “whack a mole”) …

To start this sentence again, Forth means “slow running.” It is a river. Its estuary is a bit inland from the Firth. To make things more interesting the Forth bridge is one of Five bridges across the Firth. And one of three bridges that replaces the Forth Ferry. Got that? Good, my spell checker doesn’t. Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh, sits on the Firth of Forth. Thank goodness Edinburgh’s the capital and not Fife. Oh, and who’s on first? (I am messing with the AI brain that’s invaded my apps without asking.)

This small section of the Firth is home to three bridges representing engineering principles from three different centuries. The Forth Bridge is a Victorian era cantilever steel structure. It was originally planned to be wrought iron like the Eifel Tower but as the Bessemer process became available in Britain, they switched to the stronger steel. It was the first major steel construction in the UK. I love those structures, be they railway stations, winter gardens, markets. towers or bridges. The Forth Bridge, a UNESCO world heritage site, opened in 1890. It’s a railway only crossing. It was overbuilt, as many structures of that era were, including the Eifel Tower.

As the 20th century progressed more people started driving cars and the Firth needed a vehicular bridge to replace the ferry service. Enter the Forth Road Bridge. It was first proposed in the 20s but the depression, the war, and post war recovery delayed its construction. It is a suspension bridge. Its main span is over a kilometer long. The whole bridge is two and half kilometers. When it opened in 1964 it was the longest suspension bridge outside the U.S. and the 4th longest in the world.

Unfortunately, rather than being overbuilt like its railway cousin, the Forth Road Bridge was underbuilt. Highway traffic of 60,000 vehicles a day exceeded its design capacity of 30,000. In 2003, after several bridge collapses in the United States the government ordered an inspection, and it found that corrosion had weakened the bridge. The cables holding up the roadway suffered an 8 to 10% loss of strength. The study said that the bridge would have to start imposing traffic restrictions by 2014 and if there was no major repair work it would need to close by 2020.

The authorities installed acoustic listening devices that recorded the ping each time one of the original cables snapped. Broken cables were spliced and dehumidifiers place along the cables to slow corrosion. In 2015 one of the two traffic lanes was closed and there was talk of laying on extra commuter trains. After some further repairs the whole bridge was reopened with weight restrictions. Fortunately, the Queensferry Crossing, a replacement bridge, had been contracted in 2011 and was under construction.

When the Queensferry Crossing opened the Forth Road bridge was closed for major repairs. When it re-opened only buses, taxis, bicycles and pedestrians were permitted on its span. It carries the first driverless bus route in Great Britain.

The Queensferry Bridge is a three tower cable stayed bridge. It opened in August 2017. The bridge has wind shielding to prevent high winds from disrupting traffic. It has an “intelligent” traffic system that monitors traffic, resets speed limits and closes and opens lanes in different directions to speed the flow of vehicles. The bridge is not without problems. In extreme weather the tower ices and drops ice on the roadway. On one occasion falling ice damaged eight vehicles and the bridge had to be closed.

We anchored below the Forth Railway Bridge and a local tender, from Firth Ferries took us to South Queensferry. It included a delightful commentary on the three bridges, their history and problems. I was able to get pictures of the bridges from the ship, the tender and ashore from different angles. I particularly like the way the three bridges visually interact with each other.

We were piped off the tender by a “red haired boy,” a nice welcome to Scotland.

We took the X99 bus into Edinburgh through green and yellow countryside into the suburbs.

While I have separate posts of pics from Edinburgh, here are some pictures of Arthur’s Seat in Holyrood Park. It is an extinct volcano from about 350 million years ago and fits nicely with pics of the drive in.

The next set of pictures does not artistically fit with the ones above. That is the point. Holyrood is the name of a park, a palace, (the king’s official residence in Scotland), and a parliament, the Scottish Assembly. If the assembly was isolated from Edinburgh’s old town, I think it would be stunning. But it is plunked down among the old brownstones on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, in the middle of a UNESCO World Heritage site, out of context with its surroundings. King Charles hates modern architecture. This building sits adjacent to his palace. I wonder If its design and placement is kind of a gesture to the royal house by Scottish Nationalists.

The Parliamant was designed by a Spanish architect, Enric Miralles. The building won the Sterling Prize for architecture and was billed as “A poetic union between the Scottish landscape, people and culture.” Critic Charles Jencks called it “A tour de force of arts and crafts and quality without parallel in the last 100 years of British Architecture.” Perhaps if I had gone inside I would feel differently about it.

There will be more posts on Edinburgh, Auld Reekie and Reformation and Art to come.