Scottish Rivers and Bridges

The longest river in Scotland is the River Tay, which is approximately 120 miles long.

The Spey, approximately 110 miles long, is the second longest river.

The lengths of Scotland’s other major rivers, in descending order, are as follows:

The River Clyde — 106 miles

The River Tweed — 97 miles

The River Dee - 85 miles

The River Don - 82 miles

The River Forth — 65 miles

The River Tay is recognised as one of the best salmon fishing rivers in Scotland and it has been on the Tay that catches of salmon of record- breaking weights, either caught by line or by net, have been made.

The area around the River Spey is famous for its many distilleries. The waters of the river are an essential ingredient in the whisky making process.

The River Clyde became famous as an international centre for shipbuilding in the nineteenth century. When the Cunard liner the Queen Elizabeth, built at John Brown’s shipyard on the Clyde, was launched in 1938, she
was the biggest passenger liner ever built.The area around the Falls of Clyde at New Lanark is now a Wildlife Reserve.

Forth Bridge Facts And Figures

The original designer of the Forth Bridge was Thomas Bouch, but his rail bridge across the Tay collapsed on December 28th 1879 and Sir John Fowler and Benjamin Baker were appointed instead.

The main contractor was William Arrol.

The bridge consists of55,00 tons of steel, 640,000 cubic feet of Aberdeen granite and over 8,000,000 rivets. The last rivet was driven home in a ceremony on March 4th 1890 by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). This last rivet was made of gold.

The total cost of construction came to £3.2 million.

145 acres of paint were used to coat the bridge. The paint is manufactured especially for the bridge by Craig & Rose of Leith, Edinburgh and contrary to popular belief~ workers do not start at one end of the bridge and paint
to the other end before starting all over again. They paint the bridge in sections depending on where it is needed most at any one time.

From mid-winter to mid-summer the bridge expands by almost 1 metre.

Overall length: 8296 feet (2528.7 metres)

South approach: 10 spans of 168 ft (51.2m)

North approach: 5 spans of 168 ft (5.12m)

Length portal to portal: 5350 ft (1630.7111)

Length from tower to tower: 1912 ft (582.8m)

Cantilever length: 680 ft (207.3m)

Main spans:1710 ft (521.3m)

Height of towers: 330 ft (100.6111)

Weight of 1710 ft. span: 11571 tons (11754 tonnes)

Number of rivets: 6,500,000

Weight of rivets: 4200 tons (4267 tonnes)

Total cost: £3.2m

Ten Longest Bridges In Sscotland

Tay Railway Bridge 3135m
Forth Bridge 2528m
Tay Road Bridge 2253m
Forth Road Bridge 1828m
Kessock Bridge 1052mm
Erskine Bridge 660m
Skye Bridge 570m
Clava Viaduct 549m
Findhorn Viaduct 400m
North Bridge 346m

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