FORTH BRIDGE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 205, 28 August 1940, Page 6

FORTH BRIDGE

57 YEARS NON-STOP PAINTWORK FAMOUS BRIDGE NOW HOLDING ITS JUBILEE The Forth Bridge, which celebrates its 50tli anniversary this year, is a glutton for paint. Forty-five painters are regularly employed on the 135 acres of steelwork. About three years are required to cover the whole fabric, and one complete coat absorbs 120,000 pounds of paint. Painting has been In progress since 1883, before the bridge was completed, and it is estimated that well over 900 tons of paint has been used so far. The famous bridge, a monument to British steel, Avas opened by King Edward VII when Prince of Wales, and provided a direct east coast all rail route between London and Scotland by spanning the Firth of Forth The bridge cost £2,500,000 and materials put into it included upwards of 51,000 tons of steel, 6,500,000 rivets, 740,000 cubic feet of gran. ite masonry, 64,300 cubic feet o,f concrete and 46,300 cubic yards of rubble masonry. The foundations reach 91 feet below water level, and its extreme height Is 361 feet above high water mark, or nearly as high as St. Paul's Cathedral. Vast amounts of copper must have collected by now on the bottom of the Firth of Forth beneath the bridge, because of the manj- people crossing by train who throw a halfpenny into the water "lor luck." German warplanes have dropped far more dangerous things Into the Forth, but the bridge has not been damaged.