Forth Bridge

Like painting the Forth Bridge.... 'A job that is never finished because by the time you get to the end it's time to start over again'. (Cambridge Dictionary of Idioms). The photograph shows the heavily scaffolded south span of the bridge on a May evening in 2006, partway through the 10 year project aimed at making the old cliche redundant. On 9 December 2011 BBC News reported : 'The painting of the Forth Bridge has finally been completed and the structure is now scaffold-free for the first time in a decade. It will not need another paint job for 25 years. New techniques and products are behind the project's success. A 400-strong team applied a triple layer of new glass flake epoxy paint which creates a chemical bond to provide a virtually impenetrable layer to protect the bridge's steel work from the weather'.

Location: Forth Bridge

Original line: Forth Bridge Railway

Photographer: John Furnevel

Contact photographer: John Furnevel

Contact editor

Date: 14/05/2006

Image number: 81608


Other photographs of Forth Bridge on RailScot