Forth Bridge Experience

[Hadders]

I did the 'Up at the O2' a few years ago where you get to walk over the top of the O2 in North Greenwich. IIRC we had to hand in cameras and any other 'loose possessions' but we were allowed to take a phone, on the understanding that it was kept inside the pocket of the protective suit we had to wear, until we reached the summit when we were allowed to take photos.

Suspect something similar would operate at the Forth Experience.

 

[Western Gaffer]

I did the 'Up at the O2' a few years ago where you get to walk over the top of the O2 in North Greenwich. IIRC we had to hand in cameras and any other 'loose possessions' but we were allowed to take a phone, on the understanding that it was kept inside the pocket of the protective suit we had to wear, until we reached the summit when we were allowed to take photos.

Suspect something similar would operate at the Forth Experience.

Time will tell of course, but personally I'd have thought that the Forth Bridge Experience will have more in common with the Sydney bridge one than the O2, whose shape presumably doesn't entail any potential long vertical drops onto passing trains, boats, staff, etc? No doubt there'll be a significant amount of effort put into safety management, but there doesn't seem to be much spelled out in the planning documentation linked earlier, other than confirmation that all participants will be harnessed to a continuous safety rail (as with both other experiences).

 

[najaB]

I did the 'Up at the O2' a few years ago where you get to walk over the top of the O2 in North Greenwich. IIRC we had to hand in cameras and any other 'loose possessions' but we were allowed to take a phone, on the understanding that it was kept inside the pocket of the protective suit we had to wear, until we reached the summit when we were allowed to take photos.

Suspect something similar would operate at the Forth Experience.

That would be a reasonable way to operate - being allowed to bring something small enough to fit into the pocket and you can take it out when you're on the viewing platform which, one would presume, would have both a solid floor (or one with small holes to allow drainage) and a net around the outer edge.

After all, as they say: Pictures, or it didn't happen!

 

[alxndr]

I did the 'Up at the O2' a few years ago where you get to walk over the top of the O2 in North Greenwich. IIRC we had to hand in cameras and any other 'loose possessions' but we were allowed to take a phone, on the understanding that it was kept inside the pocket of the protective suit we had to wear, until we reached the summit when we were allowed to take photos.

Suspect something similar would operate at the Forth Experience.

That does make a degree of sense, but I'd personally feel I'm more likely to drop a small untethered phone than a camera that's ergonomically designed and secured to a strap around my neck. When I'm working at height anything that could fall gets tethered to me after all.

 

[RSimons]

Well I suppose this is one advantage of an almost comically overbuilt bridge.

My understanding is that another engineer expressed a similar opinion before designing the Quebec railway bridge which collapsed during construction.

 

[najaB]

My understanding is that another engineer expressed a similar opinion before designing the Quebec railway bridge which collapsed during construction.

Twice, if memory serves me right.

 

[Strathclyder]

Twice, if memory serves me right.

Yeah, twice. In August 1907 (killing 75 workers) and September 1916 (killing 13 workers). Here is a video going into detail:

Relevent to this thread, the same channel has a video on the Forth Bridge's birth and how the Tay Bridge disaster directly influcened it:

 

[181]

My understanding is that another engineer expressed a similar opinion before designing the Quebec railway bridge which collapsed during construction.

Twice, if memory serves me right.

Indeed, although in the second collapse it appears not to have been the design of the bridge that was at fault: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Bridge.

 

[Strathclyder]

Indeed, although in the second collapse it appears not to have been the design of the bridge that was at fault: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Bridge.

Aye, it was the abrupt failure of the machinery being used to raise the centre span into position that was deemed to be the cause of the second collapse, although German sabotage was initially suspected. That such a line of thought was seriously considered is not a surprise considering it occurred at the height of World War I and Canada was a major player in the Allied side of the conflict.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

You might appreciate the Shetland version of the Beaufort Scale!

Shetland Beaufort Scale

Brilliant.

Not being able to take a camera would significantly reduce the value of the experience for me.

Ditto for me too

 

[swaldman]

Oh, excellent! I did the Sydney Harbour one twenty years ago, and hopefully will be able to do this one soon

 

[VauxhallandI]

I did the bridge experience in Lisbon and it was pretty good, it even goes over a railway.

Everyone else went to a Banksy exhibition half a mile up the road; I still tell them I made the best decision