The Fife Cantilever

‘The Fife cantilever’, c 1880s.

Photograph of the construction of the Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland. Undoubtedly Britain’s most famous railway landmark, The Forth Bridge was opened by HRH The Prince of Wales in March 1890 following eight years of building, and completed the east coast railway route between London and Aberdeen. It spans the Firth of Forth, joining the city of Edinburgh and Fife in Scotland. The bridge was designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, and built by engineer Sir William Arrol. It contains almost 54,000 tons of steel and when completed, the 1.5 mile long bridge was the biggest in the world. It is the world’s oldest cantilever railway bridge and remains in use to this day.

[Image from Feral Irishman‘s awesome rotating banner. Description from here.]

A Da Vinci Bridge – 15th Century Engineering

Okay 1502 AD is technically the 16th Century, but the engineering was already in existence.

VERY cool – You can build it on the spot if there’s available timber, no connectors required, and you can knock it down and take it with you once your army has crossed the stream, arroyo, ravine or ditch. Here’s one in use (with planks installed):

This kid constructed one without notches or connectors, using friction and compression only.

[Top image from Da Vinci. 2nd image from here, video from here, links found in here.]

The .Gif Friday Post No.501 – BoomBoomBoomBoom, Bird/Camera Frame Synch & Dance Hard

[Found here, here and here.]

The .Gif Friday Post No.365 – Monkey Bridge, Bear Pong & Sloth Air Guitar

Monkey Bridge
Bear Bong
SlothScratch

[Found here and here, and the Sloth Air Guitar is from somewhere in here. Y’all like .gif animations? We gottem.]

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