Edinburgh’s forgotten plan to scrap the Forth Road Bridge for a …

There are few man-made sights more iconic or magnificent in Scotland than the three bridges ^[1] that cross the Firth of Forth ^[2] – and yet it’s a view that could have looked very different if plans to build a 7,300-ft-long dam had made it off the drawing board.

The idea envisaged the construction of a dam across the Forth that would have been seven times longer than the Hoover Dam and a cutting interrupted by a series locks on the scale of the Panama Canal.

The mammoth project was first mooted in 1928 by Bo’ness architect Matt Steele ^[3], who suggested that building a barrage or dam with a roadway on top would be far more cost-effective than erecting any kind of overhead road bridge.

Under Steel’s plans, the Forth Dam would link Port Edgar on the Edinburgh side of the firth with a point at St Margaret’s Bay, less than half-a-mile west of North Queensferry’s pier.

The crescent-shaped dam would be capable of bearing the lion’s share of motor traffic between the two regions, eliminating the 30-mile Kincardine diversion, as well as supplying vast amounts of hydroelectric power.

The cutting would run for a little over half a mile between Inverkeithing Harbour and St Margaret’s Bay and allow marine vessels continued access to the mouth of the River Forth and, crucially, the Royal Naval dockyard at Rosyth.

Locks would be required to control the water levels so that shipping could “enter at all stages of the tide from the lower reaches”. Two swing bridges would also need to be constructed to carry road and rail traffic over the cutting.

Sign up to our Edinburgh Live nostalgia newsletters ^[5] for more local history and heritage content straight to your inbox

By late 1930, a detailed manifesto, including sketches and estimates on dimensions, were made available to the public. A cost estimate for the scheme, which Bo’ness councillor John Jeffrey said would be far safer and more economical than building a bridge, was put at between six and eight million pounds.

An artist's sketch of the Forth Dam proposal.
An artist’s sketch of the Forth Dam proposal.

In a letter to the Linlithgowshire Gazette in November 1930, Councillor John Jeffrey wrote that the construction offered new opportunities in leisure and tourism, stating that there would be room to build a “grand promenade” the length of the dam, with bathing pools located at either end.

Councillor Jeffrey also stated that the dam would transform the upper reaches of the Forth estuary into a giant lake, which would bring great benefits to the entire region.

He wrote: “There is no end to the benefits mankind would get in return commercially, industrially or socially, if this great project was to come about.

“What a clamouring there would be for building sites on both sides of the lake – a yachtsman’s paradise. In anticipation of the scheme being adopted, a guide book would be published. It would deal with the many great places of interest on the shores of the lake from the dam to Stirling.

“This is a scheme in which every Scotsman should be proud to interest himself”.

In the end, Matt Steele and John Jeffrey’s dream of Forth Dam would fall by the wayside, with plans to construct a road bridge taking precedence instead.

The Forth Road bridge from South Queensferry to North Queensferry, during nconstruction. The two halves of the bridge which wil meet early next year 27th June 1963.

The outbreak of the Second World War, however, would put the stoppers on all new Forth crossing proposals and the people of Fife and the Lothians would need to wait another generation, until 1964, for the Forth Road Bridge to finally see the light of day.

34 Edinburgh photographs that perfectly capture life in the city in the 1970s ^[6]

Retro cookbook that was a must-have for every Edinburgh kitchen back in the day ^[7]

The Edinburgh internet cafes we all used in the pre-smartphone era ^[8]

Eerie Edinburgh wreck of yacht once owned by famous author left to rot in harbour ^[9]

18 Edinburgh places that have changed beyond recognition in the last 30 years ^[10]