The Proposed Bridge over the Forth

Abstract

THE alarming observations in Sir George Airy's paper on the stability of the Forth Bridge as proposed by Mr. Fowler, which appeared in your last issue, seem to call for a reply, and I think I am in a position to make an unbiassed reply, as I had nothing whatever to do with the design, and moreover do not approve of it. I disapprove of the adopted system as one in which the distribution of the material can be economical only in a moderate degree, and I object to it from an aesthetic point of view, and also on account of some practical reasons of minor import, but I have no hesitation in asserting that the material may be so arranged in it—and very probably is so arranged—that the stability of the bridge when erected would equal that of the best existing structures of that class.