Edinburgh Scotland (1) – The Forth Bridges
On a clear day and soaring around 35,000 feet above ground, you can capture some wonderful land patterns. All my years of air travel, this part of the journey has always captivated me. It was the fall of 2015, when we caught the redeye to Amsterdam from Toronto via Reykjavik. This was always a favourite route of mine with the stopover in Iceland. It allowed us to stretch our legs and grab some expensive Icelandic snacks before we catch our connecting flight. Most cases it’s a 60 minute layover, give or take 15/20 minutes. However, with a mandatory visit at the EU border security, we’re not given much time to be selective at the snack bar. It’s a bit of an adrenalin rush mixed with anxiety as we make our choices. However, we have never missed a good snack and our flight.
With only three hours remaining to our destination, I decided to get some shut eye while we crossed the Atlantic. A couple of hours later, I awoke to see bits of landscape through a heavy clouded sky.
I decided to take the time and get some photos if the opportunity presented itself with a cloudless moment. With the knowledge that we were over Scotland, I had no clue to the actual location. I just snapped away with hopes of capturing some beautiful terrain.
I don’t normally view my photos until I return home where I can sort and label everything. Even then, my focus is zeroed in on the various cities and their local attractions.
It wasn’t until COVID struck that I was able to spend more time deleting any photos that I didn’t want. I came across these and was very surprised at what I had captured. After some research,I discovered that I had taken a photo of a historic structure in Edinburgh, Scotland. Three bridges crossing over the Firth of Forth. Each bridge was built in a different century. The Forth Bridge opened in 1890 and is now considered as a World Heritage site in Scotland. It holds the record as the world’s longest cantilever bridge. The Forth Road Bridge, aka Guid Passage was completed in 1964. The suspension bridge spans over 2.5 km in length. Queensbury Crossing opened traffic in 2017 (still incomplete in the photo). 2.7 km in length, it is the longest three-tower cable bridge in the world.
It was a surprising aerial photo. Just too bad it took me about 5 years to discover it.
l to r Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge and Queensbury Crossing
These photos were taken in 2015 and the Queensbury Bridge was not completed until 2017.
Fai Quan 