The bridge of the future? Well it was back in 1818!
IT is a very modern marvel, made possible by the latest advances in engineering techniques.
But researchers have found evidence that the new Queensferry Crossing may have been two centuries longer in the making than first thought.
The seeds of the £1.35billion project were sown in 2007 when transport bosses began researching replacements for the rapidly ageing Forth Road Bridge.
But newly discovered plans dating back nearly 200 years show a bridge design with a striking resemblance to the Queensferry Crossing, which was due to have opened to traffic in the early hours of this morning.
A sketch drawn by Edinburgh engineer and surveyor James Anderson in 1818 shows a straight road bridge suspended from three supporting towers – matching the profile of the new bridge. The so-called Bridge of Chains was deemed unfeasible at a time when no bridges spanned the waters between Edinburgh and Fife.
But it would have cost between £175,000 and £200,000 to construct – around £840million in today’s money and significantly less than the more recent project. Like the engineering and commerce bosses of today, Anderson proudly suggested his bridge would ‘facilitate the communication between the southern and northern divisions of Scotland’.
The plans were uncovered by Bruce Gittings, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, while he was working on a research project.
Mr Gittings said: ‘His design was beyond the engineering capabilities of the time, as evidenced by the collapse of the Tay Bridge in a storm in 1879 and of the Chain Pier at Trinity in Edinburgh – on which Anderson also worked – in 1898.’
News of the crossing’s Regencyera predecessor came as workers were making final preparations for the first vehicles to roll over the Queensferry Crossing between 2am and 3am today.
On Monday night it was lit up in a ceremonial handover to the Scottish Government.
Like its construction –beset by delays – the opening of the Queensferry Crossing is no straightforward affair. It will be closed to traffic early on Friday, with police diverting traffic back to the old Forth Road Bridge.
The crossing will then be opened to 50,000 members of the public on foot over the weekend.
Finally, the Queen will arrive on Monday to officially open it by cutting a ribbon on its south side.