3-077-771 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Forth Bridge: room for the Prince of Wales and the royal party, 1890. 'His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on Tuesday, March 4, performed the ceremonies of fixing the last rivet of this immense and ingenious structure, and formally opening the bridge for ordinary railway traffic...It is by the enterprise of the [railway companies which provide] the facilities of travel from London to the north of Scotland on the eastern side of Great Britain, that the Forth Bridge has been constructed - a work of seven years - at a cost of two and a half millions sterling...The contractors are Messrs. Tancred and Arrol, including Sir Thomas S. Tancred, Bart., and Mr. William Arrol, by the latter of whom many ingenious mechanical contrivances have been invented to overcome difficulties in the steel fabric...Our Special Artists, Mr. W. Simpson and M. Forestier, were present on the occasion, and we give their Sketches of the proceedings'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.