The Forth Bridge is the world's first major steel bridge and has the second longest span of any cantilever bridge (521m). More than 54,000 tons of steel and 6,500,000 rivets were used in its construction. The bridge, and the connecting railway lines from Inverkeithing and Dalmeny, cost £3,000,000 to build. In its first twenty years of operation, the Forth Bridge carried more than 1 million trains weighing almost 280 million tons.

Work started on building the Forth Bridge in 1883 and was officially completed in 1890. The present bridge was designed by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker and replaced the initial design by Thomas Bouch. Work on Bouch's Forth Bridge was stopped when his Tay Bridge collapsed in December, 1879 with the loss of 75 lives.

Most of the deaths on the Forth Bridge occurred during the erection of the cantilevers (pictured on the left) but workers were also killed on the surrounding jetties, on supply ships, and constructing the approach railways.

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