The great Forth railway bridge was not the first
cantilever bridge to be built, but it was certainly the longest. Designed
by Benjamin Baker to bridge the Firth of Forth in Scotland, it utilized
three towers, with cantilever arches extending from each. The result was
two clear spans of 1700 feet each, almost four times as great as the span
of the Britannia bridge. Baker used trusses made of tubular steel, which
gave the bridge both its strength and its impressive appearance
The illustration, from the British journal Engineering,
shows the bridge just before the completion of the central girders, which
connected the great cantilever trusses.
