'Forth Bridge Cage For Building Bottom Member', 1887

A photograph of men working on a section of the Forth Railway Bridge at South Queensferry, Scotland, taken by an unknown photographer on 9 March 1887. A cantilever design, the Forth Railway Bridge was built to carry two tracks of the North British Railway across the Firth of Forth between South Queensferry and North Queensferry. Constructed over seven years by engineers Sir John Fowler (1817-1898) and Sir Benjamin Baker (1840-1907), and completed in 1890, the Forth Bridge was the largest steel bridge of its time. It is still regarded as an engineering marvel. The photograph forms a part of the Ricketts Collection, a collection of prints, albums, ephemera and objects assembled by Howard and Jane Ricketts. The Collection concentrates mainly on 19th century British photography, but is also rich in documentary, topographic and ethnographic photography from around the world.