IT was in this week of 1964 that the Forth Road Bridge was opened. Though much less revered than its railway neighbour the Forth Bridge, and surpassed as a modern bridge by the Queensferry Crossing, nevertheless the Forth Road Bridge set records when it was built and became a vital part of the country’s infrastructure.
Following the success of the Forth Bridge, plans began to be made after World War I to replaced he ferry service across the Forth between North and South Queensferry with a bridge able to carry cars, lorries and buses. By the 1950s, the ferries were handling 40,000 crossings a year carrying an estimated 1.5 million people in 200,000 goods vehicles and 600,000 cars. The ferries were a notorious bottleneck in either direction and the alternative route via the Kincardine Bridge involved a round trip of 40 miles. The road planners wanted to build a bridge or tunnel to extend the A9 but this was rejected and the A90 was designated as a link road.
