Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-09-16
A BIG RAILROAD BRIDGE.
HE Greatest EnElneeFing work Eve
Undertakes I'm Great Britain,

thtertaken I'm Great Britain.
Considerable progress has now been
made with the works connected with
the railway bridge over the Forth, at
Queensierry-tbe moststupendouse ngi-
neering work Of the kind ever under
taken in this country, and one that, in
some Of its features, has no equal any
where else. The usually quiet villages
Of North and South Queensferry-
Villages they are, though South Queens
ferry is q royal burgh of ancient fame
are at present the scene Of unprece-
denied activity. Till within the last
few months 1t would have been difficult
to find more thoroughly dead alive
places within the bounds Of the British
Isles. Now they are swarming with
worbmen, and are revealing in the din
and turmoil of manifold labor. The
ground is historic, and has interest for
EnRlishmen quite IS much as Tor
Seotchmen. The Queen, after whom
the Queensferry were named, was the
truly English Princess Margaret, the
sister of Edgar, the AIheling, who, with
her mother and sister and brother, found
a refuge and q royal welcome in Scot
land when Norman William drove
them from England. Malcolm Cean-
more then held his Court in the forest
tower Of Duntermline. In welcoming
the royal refugees he entertained an
ANGEL unaWares, for the gentle and
sanity Margaret by and by became his
Queen. To this day the sheltered
anchorage on the north side of the Forth
is called after her st. Margaret's Hope,
and the little seaport on the southern
shore is called Port Edgar, II not after
the Atheling, then after King Edgar,
who was his namesake and his sisters
SOD.
For a good many years past the
scheme Of a railway bridge over the
Forth at Queensferry has commended
itself to engineers Is the best means Of
a1OTding continuous traffic between the
south and north of Scotland. This idea
gained force after the erection Of the
first lay bridge. That structure re-
moved for the time One of the obstacles
to through traffic which the natural
conformation of the country presented,
and quiekened the desire to get rid OF
the other. Quite naturally that desire
look shape four years ago in y proposal
for a Forth bridge under the auspices Of
Sir Thomas BOuch, Chief Engineer, who
W u ALSO TIC GbklIeCE VI Tic ldulDu5 Oul
unfortunate Tay bridge. Curious
the proposed Forth bridge appeared in
the Times on December 20, 1879, only
four days before the unparalleled disas-
ter which overwhelmed the Tay bridge
with ruin. That catastrophe made it
necessary to reconsider the plans that
had been adopted for the Forth bridge;
L,,k ,k IA - -,.,1wn khn nnna,1sfy -
Quench the desire for such a structure.
At present the traffic is interrupted by
the steamboat ferry-hve miles broad
between GrantOn and Bruntisland. Not
only is that short passage extremely dis
agreeable when easterly gales are blow
ing but il is at all times very incOn-
yeuient to break the journey by the
soluble change, first to and then from
the steamer. The great ~desirablenesS of
direct Communication between the two
sides of the Forth having been con-
coded, no better means of ettecting the
junction could have been found in ma
ture than that afforded by the Queens
ferry passage. A rocky peninsula ex-
tends from the north bank for a mile
and half into the channel of the Forth;
and the island of Inchgarvie, half q
mile from the northern shore, forms a
convenient s~tepping-stOne toward the
southern bank Of the estuary. 1t Is
impossible to eXaggerate the advantage
which the East Coast traffic will derive
from the bridging of this natural gap.
At present the whole of the traffic be-
tween the south and the north of Scot
land must, perforee, pass through the
bOttle-neck, which lies between Lar
bert and Stirling, and which is eXclu-
sively in the hands of the CALIFORNIAN
and other West Coast companies. That
is practically a monopoly, and monop-
olies initiate against the public inter
est. With the Forth bridge completed
the North British railway will be able
to run direct trains to Perth in an hour
or an hour and a hall, and to Dundee in
less than two hours. Edinburgh anglers
will be able to make q straight run to
Loeb Leven in an hour or little more,
instead Of having to spend two or three
hours on the wearisome journey, with
its manifold and provoking changes, as
at present. Aberdeen, Inverness, Wick
and Oban would all be brought nearer
TO the capital of Scotland, and, there
fore, nearer to York and London than
they are at present, and that considera-
ton makes the completion of the Forth
bridge a matter of national Importance.