142 Mr. Benjamin Baker [May 20, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, May 20, 1887. 



Sir Frederick Bramwell, D.C.L. F.E.S. M.Inst.C.E. Honorary 

 Secretary and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Benjamin Baker, Esq. M.Inst.C.E. M.B.L 



Bridging the Firth of Forth. 



During the past four years many thousands of visitors from all parts 

 of the United Kingdom, and, indeed, I may say from all parts of the 

 world, have more or less carefully inspected the works now in pro- 

 gress under the superintendence of Sir John Fowler, the Engineer- 

 in- Chief, and myself, for bridging the Firth of Forth. The present 

 lecture is an imperfect attempt to convey to you, by description and 

 illustration, some notion of the magnitude of the proportions and 

 difficulties of construction of what is generally admitted to be one of 

 the most important engineering works yet undertaken. 



The Forth which " bridled the wild Highlander," and especially 

 that part of it where the bridge crosses, should be well enough known 

 to every reader of fiction, for it has been made the scene of many 

 adventures. Mr. Louis Stevenson's thrilling story, " Kidnapped," 

 will have been read by most of you ; the hero of that story was 

 kidnapped at the very spot where the bridge crosses, so I can 

 describe the point of crossing in David Balfour's own words : — 



" The Firth of Forth (as is very well known) narrows at this 

 point, which makes a convenient ferry going north, and turns the 

 upper reach into a land-locked haven for all manner of ships. Eight 

 in the midst of the narrows lies an island with some ruins ; on the 

 south shore they have built a pier for the service of the ferry, and at 

 the end of the pier, on the other side of the road, and backed against 

 a pretty garden of holly trees and hawthorns, I could see the building 

 which they call the Hawes Inn." Such was the appearance of the 

 spot 150 years ago. The middle pier of our bridge now rests on the 

 island referred to, and the Hawes Inn flourishes too well, for being 

 in the middle of our works its attractions j)rove irresistible to a large 

 proportion of our 3500 workmen. The accident ward adjoins the 

 pretty garden with hawthorns, and many dead and injured men have^ 

 been carried there, who would have escaped had it not been for the 

 whiskey of the Hawes Inn. 



I would wish if possible to impress upon my hearers the excep- 

 tional size of the Forth Bridge, for even those who have visited the 

 works and noted the enormous gaps to be spanned on each side of 

 Inch Garvie, may yet have gone away without realising the magnitude 

 of the Forth Bridge as compared with the largest railway bridges 

 hitherto built. For the same reason that architects introduce human 



